According to a just released
report from WWF, the NZ Super Fund has over $440 million invested in the fossil fuel industry. The NZ Super Fund exists to protect and invest for our future, so it doesn’t make sense for it to invest in companies who are fueling climate change. That’s why we’re asking the NZ Super Fund to divest – getting rid of all direct investments in the fossil fuel industry.

Some key figures from the WWF report:

• $441mil NZD in direct equity investments (stocks and shares).  Unknown amounts in indirect investments.

• The Super Fund has direct investments in 92 of the top 100 oil and gas companies in the world, and 66 of the top 100 coal companies in the world.

• Together these 158 companies have fossil fuel reserves on their books equivalent to over 690 Gt of CO2. This is 40 Gt more than our entire remaining global carbon budget to 2050.*

How the case for divestment adds up

– Recent reports from Carbon Tracker Initiative, HSBC , Moody’s and others show the increasing financial risk of such investments and growing awareness of the “carbon bubble”.

– Studies show that we can only burn 1/5 of the fossil fuel reserves which companies currently have on their books if we want to give ourselves an 80% chance of keeping global warming to the internationally agreed 2 degree limit. But despite the fact that these reserves are still in the ground, and to keep global warming below crisis levels we can’t afford to dig them out, fossil fuel companies are counting the other 4/5’s as part of their current assets. Hence the growing global financial concern about the “carbon bubble”, fossil fuel companies are massively overvaluing themselves based on these unburnable reserves, and at some point those values are going to have to be readjusted.

Major organisations around the world are already starting to divest – banks, pension funds and other financial institutions, along with universities, churches and cities are phasing out fossil fuel investments and loans.
– Storebrand, a major Norwegian pension fund and life insurance firm, has divested from 19 fossil fuel companies, saying the stocks will be “worthless financially” in the future.
– World Bank has announced its plans to phase out investment in coal.
– The European investment bank, the EU’s main lending arm, said it will stop financing most coal-fired power stations to help the 28-nation bloc reduce pollution and meet its climate targets.

Ethics matter

The NZ Super Fund currently excludes (has prohibited itself from) investments in 156 companies based on their unethical and harmful practices or products including tobacco, nuclear weapons and cluster munitions manufacturing.

Let’s add fossil fuels to the list.
Read more on our blog post “A few numbers that show why the NZ Super Fund should divest from fossil fuels”

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