Having already achieved or even exceeded three of its four main objectives in support of energy and ecological transition (EET), CNP Assurances today announces its intention to double its assets under management in green investments by 2023 and accelerates its coal exit policy.
As a stakeholder in the transition towards a carbon-neutral economy, CNP Assurances seeks to align its interests with those of society. Its investment policy aims to contribute to sustainable economic growth, in particular through its commitments in support of energy transition.
CNP Assurances steps up its fight against global warming and today announces its intention to double its assets under management in green investments - forests, green bonds, high energy performance buildings, green infrastructure such as renewable energy projects and low-carbon transport and mobility - to €20 billion by the end of 2023 from €10.4 billion at the end of 2018.
At the same time, CNP Assurances accelerates its withdrawal from thermal coal:
• by lowering the exclusion threshold for existing investments, i.e. by divesting from companies whose 20% of revenue is linked to thermal coal instead of 25% previously
• by extending to all companies developing new coal-fired power plants (beyond the 120 largest currently concerned) its commitment to exclude them from its investments
• by asking all companies to which CNP Assurances is directly exposed, to publish, by 2021, a thermal coal exit plan aligned with an exit by 2030 in the EU and OECD countries, and by 2040 in the rest of the world, based on the closure and not the sale of assets
• by pursuing a policy of shareholder dialogue with companies in order to encourage those developing new thermal coal projects to abandon them, and those with thermal coal assets to adopt and implement an exit plan
On 23 September 2019, the Group announced that it had already achieved or exceeded three of its four main objectives in the fight against global warming.
• As a signatory of the Montreal Carbon Pledge, CNP Assurances published the carbon footprint of its directly held listed equity portfolio in December 2015 and undertook to reduce it by 47% between 2014 and 2021 to attain 0.25 teqCO2/€k by 2021: this target was reached in June 2019, a year and a half ahead of schedule.
• In December 2017, CNP Assurances undertook to allocate €5 billion over the 2018-2021 period to new investments in support of the energy transition. At the end of August 2019, this target was exceeded a year and half ahead of schedule: new green investments since 2018 totalled €5.2 billion.
• CNP Assurances was one of the first insurance companies to put a coal policy in place in 2015. The company excludes any new investment in coal mining and coal-based energy companies with more than 10% of their revenue linked to thermal coal. On existing assets, the holding of financial assets in this sector is limited to the threshold of 25% of their revenue. In addition, it has chosen to no longer invest in companies that are the most involved in developing new coal-fired power plants. By the end of 2018, these targets had been fully met.
• CNP Assurances undertook to reduce the carbon footprint of its directly held property portfolio by 40% between 2006 and 2021 (in kgeqCO2/m²). CNP Assurances thus set itself the target of a sustainable carbon footprint below 18 kgeqCO2/m². At the end of 2018, the rate of progress towards this target was 85%. Since 2008, CNP Assurances very significant investment in the renovation of directly owned buildings, which represented a property portfolio of more than 1.4 million m² at the end of 2018, has made it possible to avoid theoretical CO2 emissions of 5.7 thousand tonnes each year.