Sámi activist to Nordea: Stop financing oil companies – The giant investor supports the initiative, plans to speak at the general meeting

There are differences in banks. Nordea offers financing to oil and gas companies expanding their operations in the Arctic region. Danske Bank and OP have communicated that they do not offer new financing to the respective companies.

How have you, as Nordea’s management, considered indigenous peoples in your decision? Researcher and activist who worked as a Sámi politician Aslak Holmberg wants to ask this question tomorrow, Tuesday, March 24, at Nordea’s general meeting organized via the web.

“If accidents happen in the Arctic region, cleaning up the oil is very challenging because of the ice and storms. The livelihood of the indigenous peoples living in the Arctic region depends on sea areas in Norway, for example,” says Holmberg.

It is estimated that there are about 100,000 Sámi, most of whom live in Norway. The fishing industry is a significant employer on the Norwegian coast in Finnmark, where a large number of Sami people live.

The risks of oil companies are not unknown to fishermen.

An oil company BP:n the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that was leased exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 along the border of the southern states of the United States. Fishing restrictions and other consequences hit fishermen’s income and jobs.

Because of the risks, the non-governmental organizations Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance and Friends of the Earth in Sweden have made a proposal to the general meeting. Nordea should stop providing financing to oil and gas companies expanding their operations in the Arctic.

For example, Norwegian oil companies Equinor, Our Energy and Aker BP are expanding their activities in a way opposed by the organizations. Nordea has financed Equinor and Aker BP with, for example, bonds and loans.

The general meeting moved online

In the event of an accident, the Arctic region would be almost impossible to clean up, an expert from the Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance Katrine Ehnhuus says. He also lists other reasons for the initiative.

“We don’t need more oil and gas because of climate change. We don’t know if oil and gas will be used at all in the future,” Ehnhuus argued.

The development and infrastructure of oil and gas projects take many years and a lot of money. The European Union’s goal is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent by 2040 compared to 1990.

“To whom would the oil from the projects be sold? Projects are business risks in addition to environmental risks,” says Ehnhuus.

The international energy organization IEA has estimated that the use of oil and gas will decrease significantly if the states intend to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees from pre-industrial times in accordance with the Paris climate agreement. New oil and gas fields would not be needed in this scenario.

The Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance asked Aslak Holmberg to participate so that he could bring up the topic from the perspective of indigenous peoples. Holmberg emphasizes this, but reminds that the topic is also generally related to environmental and climate risks.

From Holmberg, Nordea is, in a way, withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.

Nordea previously had stricter policies for companies that are not credibly changing their business in accordance with the climate agreement. In any case, the guidelines were stricter for oil and gas companies expanding their operations in the Arctic region.

The policy was relaxed last year.

Only shareholders can participate in the general meeting. Holmberg was supposed to participate in the meeting in Helsinki with the shares of the organization’s representative, but the meeting will only be held online.

It is still unclear to Holmberg before the meeting whether he will be allowed to participate in it with the organization’s shares, even via the internet. According to him, one option is to participate in the questionnaire before the meeting, which starts online at 1:00 p.m.

“It has been speculated that the general meeting would have been moved to take place online only, because this kind of criticism is coming,” says Holmberg.

Kauppalehti followed last year on the spotwhen a Danish climate activist who acted as a representative of the organizations Caroline Bessermann introduced a similar proposal.

Nordea’s chairman of the board Stephen Hesterin one argument was as follows: when fossil fuels are still used, it is better to use Norwegian fuels.

Kauppalehti asked Nordea for an interview, but no comment was received from the bank.

Sampension: “This is worrying”

We asked the international players who have invested in Nordea by e-mail how they feel about the initiative. Few answered.

Danish pension insurer Danica does not want to comment on the voting decision before the general meeting. Two other Danish pension insurers, Academician Pension and Joint pensionsupport the proposal.

“As we will make clear in our speech at the general meeting, our support is the result of our dialogue with Nordea”, investment director of Akademiker Pension Anders Schelde write by email.

According to him, progress has been made, but the main concern of the pension insurer is the following: how can the financing of oil and gas companies, especially the expansion of operations, be in line with Nordea’s climate goals?

According to Sampension’s view, there may be a need for some investments in fossil fuels due to Europe’s energy security, but these must be carefully considered, director of responsible investments Jacob Jorgensen write.

There is no need for new projects in the Arctic region.

According to Jørgensen, they consider Nordea to be a pioneer in sustainable finance in general. However, it seems to them that the company has not given the shareholders a sufficiently transparent picture when it comes to financing companies considering the expansion of fossil fuels.

“It appears that certain types of activities in particular have been left out when the company assesses its exposure to fossil fuel expansion. We find this troubling given the materiality of these issues to shareholders in assessing the company’s transition strategy.”

KLP: “The proposal is too broad and prescriptive”

Norwegian KLP does not support the initiative. I retired a senior analyst Arild Skedsmon usually KLP asks oil and gas companies not to open new production in areas where it does not already exist.

“However, the proposal presented to Nordea’s general meeting is too broad and prescriptive,” Skedsmon writes.

The proposal would be recorded in the articles of association, which are the internal regulations of every company and binding on the management. The change requires a two-thirds majority of the shares and votes represented at the general meeting.

Sampension owns more than three million shares, which are worth around EUR 48 million. Despite the large-sounding sums, Sampension is only the 88th largest owner with a holding of 0.09 percent of shares and votes.

Akademiker Pension’s ownership is even smaller.

Nordea’s largest owners are the world’s largest asset manager Blackrockthe Norwegian Petroleum Fund, Blackrock’s competitor Vanguarda Danish foundation Nordea Fund and a well-known Swedish activist investor Cevian Capitalwho personifies the founding member to Christer Gardell.