The financial company will also sell its investments in pipeline companies Transcanada and Enbridge in Canada and the US.
Friday 1 February 2019 (MONTRÉAL) – Insurance company Aegon (number 19 in the world) announced today that it will not invest in oil companies that produce 30% or more of their total production from oil sands, and pipeline companies which are involved in oil sands transportation, as these investments are not considered to be in line with the company’s climate strategy.
Aegon is adding eleven companies involved in the Canadian oil sands to its exclusion list as of today. The financial company will also sell its investments in pipeline companies Transcanada and Enbridge (which are planning to build two new tar sands pipelines into the US). Greenpeace Canada welcomes the move, and calls on other investors and banks to follow suit and move their money from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Aegon is withdrawing 530 million euros in investments from tar sands companies.
“Moving your money out of fossil fuels and into clean energy is the litmus test for whether investors are taking climate change seriously. Aegon’s decision sends an important signal to investors and the oil industry that expanding dirty fossil fuel production is a bad bet and incompatible with a climate safe world. It is now time for major Canadian financial players like the Canadian Pension Plan, the Caisse de Dépôt et Placement du Québec, the Mouvement Desjardins, TD Bank, and others to follow Aegon’s lead in turning their climate rhetoric into action.” said Keith Stewart, Senior Energy Strategist with Greenpeace Canada.
“Yesterday the Parliamentary Budget Officer said that the Trudeau government may have overpaid for the Trans Mountain pipeline and expansion project, with collateral costs expected to increase. Tar sands expansion projects like Trans Mountain don’t hold up in court, don’t have Indigenous consent, and are increasingly losing support from the financial sector.” he added.
Aegeon is pulling out EUR 500 million in bonds from eight of these companies and have sold their EUR 30 M shares in the following:
- Canadian Natural Resources Limited
- Cenovus Energy Inc.
- Husky Energy Inc.
- Imperial Oil Ltd
- MEG Energy Corp.
- Suncor Energy Inc.
- TransCanada Corp
- Enbridge Inc
They did not invest in the three remaining companies, Athabasca Oil Corporation, Connacher Oil and Gas Ltd. and Sunshine Oilsands Ltd; and they will also put them on their Exclusion List.
This is a wake up call to investors, the oil industry and world leaders that we are running out of time and they must take urgent action to tackle climate change and honor the commitments made under the Paris Agreement.
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Note to editors: The latest international fund to pull out from fossil fuels was AP4 in Sweden in January. Before them, HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, confirmed in April 2018 that it will no longer provide project finance for new tar sands projects, including the construction of any pipelines. BNP Paribas in October 2017 announced a decision to no longer finance “pipelines that primarily carry oil and gas from shale and/or oil from tar sands,” and will sever “business relations with companies that derive the majority of their revenue from these activities.” Dutch bank ING confirmed in June 2017 that its oil sands policy excludes financing tar sands pipelines. Sweden’s largest pension fund, AP7, announced that it will divest from TransCanada on the grounds that its proposed pipelines in Canada and the US were incompatible with the Paris Agreement. In December 2017 French bank Natixis pledged to no longer fund “exploration and production projects concerning oil extracted from tar sands; infrastructure projects (pipelines, terminals and others) primarily devoted to transporting or exporting oil extracted from tar sands” or companies whose business primarily relies on exploiting oil extracted from tar sands, and insurance and investment giant Axa announced the “divestment of over Euro 700 million from the main oil sands producers and associated pipelines, and the discontinuation of further investments in these businesses” and no longer providing insurance to tar sands projects or associated pipeline businesses.
For more information:
Loujain Kurdi, Communications Officer, Greenpeace Canada, [email protected], +1 514-577-6657
Press release Aegon: https://www.aegon.com/newsroom/
Exclusion list Aegon: https://www.aegon.com/investors/compliance/general-governance/Compliance/Responsible-Investment-Policy/
