Mayor Of Amsterdam Pressures Dutch Pension Fund APB To Divest From Fossil Fuels

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The Mayor of Amsterdam has publicly pressured Dutch pension fund APB to divest from fossil fuel investments, according to Fossil Free Europe.

Fossil Free-3According to the Fossil Free Europe initiative, a project of global climate movement 350.org, Mayor of Amsterdam Eberhard van der Laan penned a letter to the board of Dutch pension fund APB, the world’s fifth-largest pension fund, calling on it to divest from its investments in coal, oil, and gas companies, citing concerns over irreversible climate change. (The letter is available in Dutch, here — PDF.)

“If ABP does not end investments in the fossil fuel industry within a reasonable timeframe, pensions of participants will be at serious risk,” Eberhard van der Laan wrote, in what he called his response to the Amsterdam Fossielvrij (Fossil Free Amsterdam) campaign.

“Cutting our financial ties to the fossil fuel industry will make our city and our pensions fit for the future,” said Sven Jense of Amsterdam Fossielvrij. “But we also need to set an ambitious time frame to drop these investments – and also transition the city’s harbour away from fossil fuels. We don’t want our city to make money out of climate destruction.”

The divestment movement has maintained a steady pace throughout the recent years, with a number of institutions, organizations, and locales divesting from some or all investments in fossil fuels. At the Paris climate summit held in December of last year, 350.org announced that divestment commitments had reached $3.4 trillion.


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Joshua S Hill

I'm a Christian, a nerd, a geek, and I believe that we're pretty quickly directing planet-Earth into hell in a handbasket! I also write for Fantasy Book Review (.co.uk), and can be found writing articles for a variety of other sites. Check me out at about.me for more.

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