Dutch insurers reduce absolute carbon footprint of equity portfolios by 40%

Written by Adam Cadle

24/01/2023

Dutch insurers reduced the absolute carbon footprint (financed emissions) of their equity portfolios by 40% between 2017-2020, according to analysis published by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB).

While this decrease is partly due to investment portfolio reallocations, for example by investing more in cleaner companies instead of high-emission firms, its main cause is the fact that investee companies have reduced their carbon emissions by investee companies.

The total equity portfolios of Dutch insurers amounted to €15bn in 2020 including equity investments through investment funds.

The companies in which insurers invest follow wider trends: although emissions did not decrease globally over the period 2017-2020, falling carbon emissions can be seen in the European Union, the United States and Japan, countries where Dutch pension funds and insurers invest the most. Part of the drop in carbon emissions at companies in the last year of the analysis (2020) can probably also be ascribed to COVID-19-related effects.

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