13th October, 2021
Dutch public pension fund manager APG has thrown its weight behind the EU’s first green bond issue, purchasing EUR195 million of the debut issue.
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12th October, 2021
Norway’s outgoing centre-right government has proposed slashing withdrawals from the country’s US$1.4 trillion Government Pension Global Fund (GPFG) by more than 20% to NOK322.4 billion (US$37.7 billion) in 2022 – but it would still represent the third largest annual withdrawal in the fund’s 31 year history.
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6th October, 2021
Concern over climate change continues to prompt state-owned investors to declare their commitment to fighting greenhouse gas emissions with One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds (OPSWF) signing up four new SWF members this week. Yet, the lack of standardization of greenhouse gas auditing and reviews of progress towards targets makes judging OPSWF's real world impact difficult to measure.
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29th September, 2021
Canadian public pension funds have been among the leaders in seeking to decarbonize their portfolio and Canada’s second biggest fund - Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ) - is taking it a step further by pledging to divest C$3.9 billion (US$3.1 billion) of oil assets by end-2022.
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21st September, 2021
While sovereign wealth funds are poised to invest more funds in green bonds to extend their ESG credentials in fixed income, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund's portfolio companies are issuing their own green bonds to support the fund's domestic economic development plans.
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17th September, 2021
Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund is scaling up its plans under the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (UAE-UK SIP) with the GBP5 billion (US$7 billion) investment framework agreed in March boosted to GBP10 billion (US$14 billion) over the next five years under a deal signed this week in Downing Street.
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24th August, 2021
Saudi Arabia is determined to leverage its oil wealth to finance its transition to sustainable energy with its Public Investment Fund backing investment in solar energy.
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20th August, 2021
The formation of a US clean energy firm Arevon Energy by APG, CalSTRS and ADIA this week comes hot on the heels of US Senate approval of a US$1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill that underscores the Biden administration’s renewable energy agenda.
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19th August, 2021
The Canadian public pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) reported a mid-year return of 5.6% for end-June, outperforming its benchmark return of 4.4% due to robust performance in real assets and bringing net assets to C$390 billion (US$304 billion).
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12th August, 2021
Climate risk is a top priority for Norges Bank (NBIM), the manager of the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, the US$1.38 trillion Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG). While NBIM has made significant efforts to slash its carbon footprint, it still has a further journey to make even to match some of its peers – and the slow pace of transition is denying GPFG potential growth.
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4th August, 2021
With the drive towards net zero, the logical way asset owners can reduce the carbon intensity of their portfolios is to simply cut out exposure to fossil fuels. It is an easy and quick way to prove sustainability, but selling assets to third parties simply reduces the asset owner’s carbon emissions with little impact on climate change.
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2nd August, 2021
The infrastructure arm of Ontario’s public employees pension fund OMERS has taken a chunk of Indian renewables producer Azure Power, which is majority owned by Québec’s CDPQ. Yet, Global SWF research finds that state-owned investors are increasingly reticent about risks in the Indian renewables market, while at the same time they are being lured to developed markets where opportunities are opening up in energy transition.
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