MP Pension, Gentofte, Denmark, has excluded a further 24 oil companies from its portfolio, divesting almost 900 million Danish kroner ($133.9 million) in assets.
The 128.4 billion kroner pension fund excluded the oil companies following a 644 million kroner divestment from the 10 biggest oil companies in its portfolio last year.
"In the future, we need to keep an eye on all the many oil stocks that we do not own and see if they meet our strict requirements regarding the Paris Agreement," Anders Schelde, investment manager, said Monday in a translation of a news release. "That way, our members can rest assured that they will never find their way to our portfolio."
Executives at the pension fund, which provides benefits for Danes holding Master of Arts, Master of Science or Doctor of Philosophy degrees and are employed at universities and upper secondary schools, are also looking at bond holdings.
In the future, bonds and shares issued by coal and tar sands companies will be excluded.
Executives will also analyze fossil-fuel divestments at least once a year to ensure the fund is "at par with the green transition," the release said.
MP Pension also said it joined the "Race to Zero" initiative, comprising a group of investors and companies across the globe that aim to make the world carbon-neutral by 2050. It pledged support to the initiative by becoming a signatory to the United Nations-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance.
"This is basically about how the world comes out of the corona crisis in the right way in relation to the climate crisis the world is still in. It is important that we all continue to focus on investing in the green transition and on keep the global temperature rise below the pain threshold. Now is the time for the countries of the world to seriously deliver on the promise of breaking the curve," CEO Jens Munch Holst said in a June 5 news release.
The fund has pledged to reduce the investment portfolio's carbon dioxide emissions to zero by 2050 and will set sub-targets for 2025 and 2030. MP Pension has reduced its equity portfolio carbon intensity by more than 20% since 2017, the release said.
The fund had a 55% exposure to bonds, 32% to equities and 13% to alternatives and real estate as of Dec. 31.
A spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
