Chapter I
Germany’s high emitting coal energy generator painted inexperienced
Norbert Winzen stares at us in shock once we inform him that his trusted life insurance coverage firm, Allianz, is greenwashing RWE. Germany’s high polluter has made his life onerous over the past years; not solely has RWE poisoned the air he breathes, it has additionally almost destroyed his farm in a village nestled within the wetlands of North Rhine-Westphalia.
That is the fourth largest state (“Land”) within the federal republic of Germany and one of the crucial vital industrial and vitality hotspots in Europe. It took large protests that started in 2019 to lastly persuade the German authorities to avoid wasting the neighborhood of Keyenberg and Winzen’s dwelling, halting the enlargement of RWE’s Garzweiler open-cast coal mine which fuels the corporate’s dirtiest energy vegetation. RWE is Europe’s second-largest coal utility and one of many continent’s greatest contributors to greenhouse gasoline (GHG) or carbon emissions.
Moreover boosting man-made international warming, the corporate’s mines and coal-fired energy vegetation pollute the air, the water and the soil. They take a heavy toll on the well being of the 42 million individuals who reside inside a 200km radius, together with in neighbouring Belgium and the Netherlands.
But RWE is featured in dozens of funding merchandise provided by asset managers throughout Europe and labeled as ESG, an acronym which refers to Environmental, Social and Governance targets.
These merchandise, generally outlined as “inexperienced” funds, are regulated by the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (generally known as SFDR), which since 2021 has imposed transparency necessities geared toward diverting non-public capital from soiled to sustainable firms. Sadly, the brand new guidelines are flawed and being abused. A large movement of investor cash has gone into self-proclaimed accountable funds which can be in truth propping up the planet destroyers – a.okay.a. fossil gasoline firms.
The EU makes means for the push to “inexperienced” earnings from coal
RWE is just not the one vitality producer utilizing coal which attracts inexperienced funding, however is definitely one of the crucial worthwhile in Europe with over 28 billion euro of earnings in 2023. The EU-regulated inexperienced funds account for 3% of the corporate’s capital. Altogether they symbolize the sixth largest shareholder by way of aggregated worth. Over the previous three years (2021-2024), they’ve earned a complete of $1.6 billion by shopping for and promoting RWE shares and pocketing the corporate’s annual dividends. The highest 10 most worthwhile asset managers revamped $1.3 billion (80% of the whole).
This supposedly “accountable” profitable revenue was created from harm to public well being which has an equally excessive financial worth. The comparability stems from the newest evaluation by the European Setting Company which exhibits that RWE’s most polluting coal-fired vegetation are certainly liable for over 1.3 billion euros in well being prices (nearly a 3rd of the whole well being prices related to the dirtiest industrial vegetation in Germany throughout all sectors). It seems that good returns for traders are unhealthy information not just for the local weather disaster, as we confirmed in our earlier investigation, but in addition for the individuals affected by air pollution.
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Multiple third ($593 million) of all returns from RWE shares had been secured by funds promoted with names evoking the “public good”, intentionally designed to draw investor consideration. Amongst these earnings, as a lot as $543 million was taken in by funds whose names embrace deceptive phrases – resembling “ESG” “inexperienced”, “surroundings”, “local weather”, “sustainable”, “influence”. The EU now needs to ban funds with these names from investing in firms that earn greater than 1% of their income from the extraction, refining and distribution of coal. The ban was lately advisable by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
Exactly, about 1% of RWE’s income comes from coal-based fuels, which carbon-intensive industries use for vitality. This data was confirmed privately by RWE’s investor relations crew to Voxeurop. Nonetheless, most inexperienced funds at the moment permit investments in firms with as much as 10 to twenty% of income from coal. Due to these free thresholds, inexperienced funds will hold investing in RWE and different coal producers till the ESMA pointers come into impact in Could 2025. Notably, the brand new pointers aren’t legally binding, leaving enforcement to nationwide regulators. A couple of monetary establishments amongst these which market mislabelled funds have confirmed they’ll adjust to these guidelines, whereas most of them declined to touch upon their intentions.
Case examine: Allianz’s dodgy fund unveils a widespread hoax
Throughout our analysis into coal greenwashing, we got here throughout the merchandise marketed by Allianz Benelux, the Belgian subsidiary of the German group Allianz, the world’s largest insurance coverage firm and Europe’s largest monetary companies firm. Allianz ranks second among the many high 10 asset managers investing essentially the most in RWE via EU-regulated inexperienced funds. From 2021 till the start of 2024, the monetary big’s publicity (via its a number of inexperienced funds) in direction of the compatriot coal champion elevated by nearly 47 million USD, peaking at 130 million within the final quarter of 2022.
Allianz Benelux’s providing boasts a Russian doll-like product, known as Higher World, which bundles collectively a lot of separate inexperienced funds, which in flip maintain shares in numerous firms. Checking how inexperienced such a posh portfolio is can be a headache for any unsavvy retail investor. The web site’s drop-down menu hyperlinks to paperwork with cryptic jargon copied from ESMA technical norms, with no point out of the investee firms.
Among the many funds listed within the Allianz product, one known as Clear Planet occurs to sponsor RWE, as we came upon by analysing information extracted from Refinitiv platform (owned by the London Inventory Alternate Group). This fund, which, like many others, is conveniently domiciled in Luxembourg (which imposes softer regulation and taxation) and is obtainable in a number of European international locations (in addition to Belgium, it’s obtainable in Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland and the UK, amongst others). Its portfolio is comparatively small by way of monetary worth and it solely began investing in RWE at first of 2024 (which is coincidentally when its monetary efficiency recovered after plummeting in 2023). In consequence, the returns related to the German utility might not but be obtainable, based mostly on the newest up to date information to which we had entry.
In line with Allianz’s web site, the fund contributes to decreasing air, water and soil air pollution – precisely the alternative of what RWE, as an vitality firm, does. “The denomination ‘Clear Planet’ clearly brings to traders’ thoughts the promise of environmental enchancment, regardless that the time period ‘surroundings’ is just not explicitly used within the fund identify” stated Axel Pierron, affiliate director of Morningstar/Sustainalytics, a number one funding analysis firm. ESMA’s pointers appear to name for a broad interpretation of fund names, so the time period “clear” might nicely fall into the surroundings class.
The identify of the fund and its official goal make the entire story a wonderful instance of inexperienced finance misinformation which includes a number of different monetary gamers partaking in related inconsistent commitments and obscure due diligence methodologies (based mostly on their funds documentation).
“If a fund solely holds 1% of its portfolio in shares of a selected firm, one may argue that it is a comparatively insignificant determine, nevertheless RWE can be included within the portfolios of many different traders, elevating the general investments to appreciable ranges,” Fabio Moliterni, a local weather finance professional working on the Milan-based moral finance firm Etica Sgr, informed Voxeurop. “Subsequently, it’s important to look at even a single case, because it represents a phenomenon frequent to all funds that collectively make investments billions on this firm”.
How any investor might be caught within the greenwashing lure
The query we requested ourselves was: “Are traders who purchased Allianz’s dodgy “inexperienced” product knowledgeable that they’re subsidising RWE’s inventory market and benefiting from its polluting actions?”
To search out the reply, which we discovered was “no”, we’ve got to return to the place the place our investigation started. Welcome to Brussels, the capital of Belgium and of the European Union’s greenwashing. In September 2024 we contacted an funding adviser at Crelan, Belgium’s fifth largest financial institution, who additionally acts as a dealer for Allianz merchandise. We made an appointment by e-mail,, within the guise of a possible consumer within the Higher World product. As we stood in entrance of the adviser in his workplace, positioned in the midst of the European establishments, we already knew that Allianz’s Clear Planet held shares in RWE. However because it turned out, the advisor had no thought.
Once we requested the Crelan advisor head to head if any of the funds included in “Higher World” had any polluting or fossil gasoline firms of their portfolio, the proud reply “no” got here with a shake of the top. Nonetheless, the dealer added that he by no means has the total checklist of firms included within the funds he affords to his purchasers. To get this checklist, he must make a selected request to Allianz. He confirmed that different individuals have invested their financial savings within the Clear Planet fund. In our estimation, it’s possible none or only some of them know that RWE was lurking beneath the floor. Greenwashing was taking place only a hundred metres from the European Fee, proper beneath the nostril of the very policymakers who put the failing SFDR legislative framework on the desk.
An funding supervisor on the Allianz subsidiary in Belgium (who requested to stay nameless for concern of talking out) confirmed that traders by no means ask for the total checklist of all investee firms. “You’re the primary to ask for it,” she informed Voxeurop. “I don’t see the purpose, as a result of it’s a matter of belief. Individuals ask what the targets of the fund are, however they don’t ask what’s behind it.”
A key loophole in EU laws is that asset managers’ advertising materials solely have to disclose the highest 15 firms by which a inexperienced fund holds the biggest shares, which is precisely what the Crelan adviser did throughout our assembly the place we posed as potential purchasers. Based mostly on a separate piece of laws, complementary to the SFDR, the total checklist of investee firms is publicly obtainable within the fund’s administration experiences. However these experiences are omitted or just ignored by monetary operators of their face-to-face interactions with traders, undermining transparency in observe.
“There is no such thing as a obligation to offer the semi-annual or annual report back to the investor previous to subscription,” stated a spokesperson from the Belgian Monetary Companies and Markets Authority. “Nonetheless, the investor should have the ability to get hold of the newest report and the prospectus freed from cost, on its request, earlier than the conclusion of the contract.”
Once we posed as an investor, neither the advisor at Crelan Financial institution nor the funding supervisor at Allianz in Brussels referred to Clear Planet’s semi-annual report dated March 2024 (whose direct hyperlink is lacking from the Higher World web site), which exhibits 9,263 shares in RWE being value $313,728. The funding elevated as much as 12,963 shares, value $469,057, within the second quarter of the yr, in accordance with the up to date schedule we obtained in September 2024 from Allianz Benelux. This worth represents slightly bit greater than 1% of Clear Planet’s portfolio. Such a comparatively tiny fraction is the norm for fossil vitality firms, which subsequently by no means seem within the high 15 holdings of inexperienced funds, though they find yourself totalling billions throughout all of the EU-regulated funds.
A Crelan spokesperson informed Voxeurop: “Crelan does have a partnership with Allianz to advertise the latter [EU-regulated funds] to its community (i.e. of purchasers) as a potential supplier for all times insurance coverage merchandise”. He defined Crelan obtained a price from Allianz, “which is nevertheless liable for the supply of enough data and coaching to its brokers, which additionally embrace our financial institution brokers. As for the truth that we had obtained restricted data in our assembly, the accountability was handed off. We had been informed: . “Our agent was not appearing as a banking agent on behalf of Crelan, however as an impartial insurance coverage dealer on behalf of Allianz, subsequently we aren’t liable for the truth that the agent was not sufficiently knowledgeable on the topic.”
Axel Pierron of the Morningstar/Sustainalytics ranking company acknowledged the problem {that a} potential consumer may additionally face in not being totally knowledgeable. He informed Voxeurop that the EU transparency guidelines “do probably not shelter the vast majority of retail traders who’re unable to find and perceive all of the ESG-related metrics reported in fund paperwork from greenwashing. Monetary advisors can hardly assist in the method as they usually lack adequate understanding and data. In reality, educating advisors on key ESG themes stays a serious problem at monetary establishments.”
In October 2024 we escalated our inquiry to Allianz’s headquarters in Munich on this level; a spokesperson informed us: “Our funding disclosures are totally compliant with regulatory necessities.”
One other shortcoming is that asset managers don’t have to point which firms are a part of the investments supposed to attain the environmental or social targets of the fund (the ESG portion).
“We don’t touch upon particular person firms,” stated the Allianz spokesperson who, nonetheless, added that the group “needs to assist […] firms that decide to transition paths.” This assertion implicitly means that RWE is included a minimum of within the ESG portion of the Clear Planet fund (50% of the portfolio), if not additionally within the totally sustainable portion (90% of the portfolio) which has to observe stricter EU necessities. Certainly, the fund’s advertising materials additionally highlights the theme of vitality transition as a solution to clear up the air (1). The underlying assumption is that shifting away from fossil fuels and decreasing carbon footprint will do good not solely to the local weather but in addition to the surroundings and folks’s wellbeing. Whereas that is true in precept., the truth on the bottom is way extra advanced.
Chapter II
From good banks to coal tanks: the human value behind eco-marketing
Allianz clients who hope to do good via supposedly accountable investments, whereas incomes an honest earnings, may be all for discovering out simply how little coal mines and coal-fired energy stations contribute to a “higher world”. That’s why we set off on a journey 200km east of Brussels. Our vacation spot: Cologne, the biggest metropolis in North Rhine-Westphalia and a part of the most polluted city space in Europe. Cologne and different Rhenish cities are long-standing shareholders of RWE which has traditionally held a decent grip on native administrations. We needed to speak to native individuals affected by RWE’s actions and provides them an opportunity to elucidate, from their very own perspective, why Allianz’s “clear” investments in coal aren’t so clear.
Everybody we met was as shocked as Norbert Winzen, the farm proprietor in Keyenberg, to listen to that RWE is such a well-liked wager amongst accountable financiers. Lots of them have labored tirelessly to carry the German coal champion accountable for the hurt its emissions have induced to the local weather and public well being. Their initiative is the RWE Tribunal, a casual civic courtroom based by the Cologne-based collective ATTAC. This tribunal organised 4 public hearings between 2021 and 2023 by which scientists, well being specialists and activists mentioned proof of RWE’s accountability.
The German authorities grant RWE carte blanche
In 2022, ATTAC and different native civil society organisations supporting the RWE Tribunal handed over a petition with 4,370 signatures to a consultant of the general public prosecutor’s workplace in Cologne, in assist of an indictment for manslaughter filed by greater than 20 legal professionals.
The felony criticism, grounded on a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court docket, was referred to the general public prosecutor’s workplace within the neighbouring metropolis of Essen, dwelling to RWE’s headquarters, which rejected it in 2023. The plaintiffs appealed in opposition to the choice and in March 2024, RWE Tribunal activists gathered in entrance of the attraction prosecutor’s workplace within the metropolis of Hamm to demand the opening of a proper investigation. Nonetheless, fees had been ultimately dismissed a couple of days later.
In its determination, the prosecutor of Hamm has acknowledged that “the unfavourable environmental results brought on by pollution resembling carbon dioxide, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and mercury emitted in the course of the operation of coal-fired energy vegetation” are “undisputed and sufficiently confirmed” by the legal professionals who sued RWE, including nevertheless that “an administratively authorised plant constitutes neither a felony offence nor a legally disapproved danger”.
In Cologne Dr Heinrich Comes, the lawyer who led the lawsuit, emphatically stated: “No legislation in Germany authorises business actions resulting in homicide”. He added that “the executive permission obtained by RWE can not prevail on the rights to life and well being enshrined in our structure.” Dr Comes accused investigating our bodies of “intentionally turning a blind eye, evading their authorized mandate to guard residents in opposition to a punishable crime.”
In line with Dr Comes, the blame lies with members of the ERWE”s Government Board and Supervisory Board, who “knowingly accepted that increasingly more individuals in Germany and around the globe have died over the past twenty years because of RWE’s coal mining and energy era, due each to the native influence of health-damaging poisonous pollution, and to the worldwide influence of climate-altering carbon emissions. Fashionable attribution science has quantified the casualties ensuing from what is going on right here within the Rhenish lignite space. Though we can not identify particular person victims, the statistical deaths are actual deaths.”
The well being influence of RWE’s vegetation is exacerbated by means of lignite (or brown coal), a gasoline that has a decrease vitality worth than onerous (or black) coal and subsequently produces extra air pollution per megawatt when burned. Germany is Europe’s largest producer and shopper of lignite. In 2016 alone, RWE was liable for 1,880 untimely deaths in Germany and in neighbouring international locations, in accordance with a examine by the Brussels-based NGO Local weather Motion Community. Round 65% of the deaths had been attributed to the corporate’s largest vegetation in North Rhine-Westphalia (Neurath, Niederaussem, Weisweiler and Frimmersdorf), all of that are within the “Coal-Killers Europe Prime 10”.
In the identical yr, the 4 vegetation had been liable for 1,320 hospital admissions and 30,000 days of bronchial asthma signs in kids. These figures could be outdated, as coal air pollution has decreased over time. However in 2023, a crew of German researchers discovered that particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) from lignite-fired vegetation had been nonetheless respectively liable for the lack of between 7,800 and 13,500 years of life, roughly, among the many nation’s uncovered inhabitants.
To place a face to these figures, we met Christian Döring, a paediatrician concerned within the RWE Tribunal initiative, and his younger affected person Andre, a 14-year-old schoolboy from Cologne. Döring was getting ready for a routine check-up with Andre, who informed us that it felt like he was barely choking when he breathed and that he coughed quite a bit: “The business makes our respiratory situations worse each day. Asthmatic individuals like me know what I’m speaking about.”
Döring defined how the air pollution from lignite contributed to the general background air pollution in cities: “It exposes our residents and will increase their danger of getting sick, particularly kids who’re born whereas their moms inhaled poisonous substances throughout being pregnant, and [who] proceed to soak up them greater than adults as a result of their sooner respiratory tempo.”
We present Döring the Clear Planet web site that includes a photograph of a kid respiratory recent air in opposition to a mountain backdrop. His response is stark. “This advertising communication is against the law in opposition to our society. We will’t spend money on one thing that kills kids. This fund ought to not be known as Clear Planet. It ought to be known as Soiled Planet,” he stated, pointing to the evident hypocrisy of the picture. “I can not think about how the CEOs of RWE and Allianz can stand in entrance of their very own kids, whereas placing their lives in danger.” Andre agreed together with his physician: “Adults who put their cash into these funds that assist extremely polluting firms like RWE, which have a really unhealthy influence on the well being of their kids, are principally investing in a worse future for them”.
Markus Duffner had even more durable phrases. He’s director of the Cologne-based Affiliation of Important Shareholders, which submitted a movement on the ravaging penalties of lignite operations throughout RWE’s basic meeting in 2023: “Allianz has clearly been taken in by RWE’s promoting slogan ‘Our vitality for a sustainable life’,” stated Duffner. “If the Clear Planet Fund actually needs to spend money on firms which can be sustainable, RWE ought to be kicked out.”
Investing within the destruction of properties and forest to mine coal
To have a greater thought of the influence of RWE’s actions on the bottom, we set off on a highway journey 50km north of Cologne to discover the Rhenish coal kingdom: it’s the “black gap” in our “Clear Planet”, seen from each a satellite tv for pc and an investor perspective. We’re within the automotive with Ulla Kellerwessel, who’s a member of the Cologne-based affiliation Mother and father for Future, and is personally concerned within the RWE Tribunal initiative.
“Many individuals on this space misplaced their properties and their farmlands on our exceptionally fertile soil… [their] capability to offer meals safety to the following generations is critically in danger as a result of environmental disruption brought on by coal actions,” says Kellerwessel. “What’s legally permitted is just not essentially sustainable. That’s why the coal business and RWE ought to be boycotted by inexperienced traders. I might inform all those that place their cash in inexperienced funds sponsoring RWE: ‘coal kills us as you earn your greenwashed earnings’.”
On the best way, we paid a go to to Norbert Winzen in Keyenberg. Throughout our dialog the truth that RWE is sponsored by Allianz, with whom Winzen has a longtime buyer relationship, popped up. Out of the blue, Winzen discovered himself personally, albeit unintentionally, concerned within the possible greenwashing rip-off orchestrated by his insurance coverage firm.
It’s as if the bucolic ambiance of his centuries-old farm, surrounded by cattle grazing on pastures, immediately collapses into the truth of the 40km2 crater of the Garzweiler mine, from which 20 to 25 million tonnes of lignite is extracted yearly. Darkish mountains of waste rock rise above roaring excavators digging for coal, in opposition to a backdrop of the fumes spewing from the chimneys of the close by energy stations that burn the open-cast mine’s lignite, the place we and Kellerwessel had began our tour. Winzen’s farm is correct on the sting of this Dantesque void, which till 2018 has swallowed up 130 villages and uprooted 44,000 individuals.
“We’re consistently uncovered to air pollution, [a] digging noise and earth tremors that trigger cracks within the partitions,” stated Winzen. He defined that his father left his first farm for the one he’s now residing in due to the increasing mining actions. “Once I was 14, the sting of the mine was nonetheless 25km away, however then it obtained nearer and nearer, and earlier than my eyes villages had been both razed to the bottom or changed into ghostly outposts like mine, as carbon-intensive energy manufacturing and air pollution continued,” he stated. He defined why he and his household had been among the many 50 or 60 individuals nonetheless residing in Keyenberg: “My village has misplaced most of its 900 inhabitants within the final 25 years. Since rumours unfold about RWE’s plans to mine coal beneath our ft, in some unspecified time in the future we additionally thought we’d higher go away.”
Virtually all of the residents selected to flee after receiving compensation to purchase a brand new dwelling elsewhere, reasonably than combat in courtroom on the final minute with bulldozers at their doorstep and risking dropping every little thing. The German legislation permits RWE to evict anybody standing on its coal concessions, supplied it’s to guard nationwide vitality safety and after prior negotiations with landowners.
The native collective Human Rights Earlier than Mining Rights, which represents the threatened villages, filed a constitutional courtroom case in 2019 to overturn the supply reaffirmed in Germany’s Coal Exit Act. The plaintiffs argued that coal from the Garzweiler mine is not an financial necessity, as latest evaluation has proven, and subsequently RWE’s proper to mining can not override the appropriate of individuals to reside on their land.
The lawsuit was rejected, however fortunately the wave of mining destruction stopped for good in October 2022, as a part of a political settlement between RWE and the German authorities (which was albeit not legally binding). This introduced ahead the coal phase-out to 2030 (in comparison with the 2038 authorized deadline), whereas permitting RWE to restart and delay the closure of a lot of coal-fired models. The deal saved 5 at-risk villages and Winzen’s dwelling, aside from the hamlet of Lützerath. Sadly, the latter was razed in 2023 regardless of renewed resistance, following the inexperienced gentle by North Rhine-Westphalia State authorities.
It’s not over but, in accordance with Dirk Tesmer from the German legislation agency PNT Companion, who was the lead lawyer within the authorized and constitutional proceedings: “For my part, the controversy remains to be ongoing as a result of displacements occurred in opposition to the rules defending human rights and sometimes, with out enough indemnification,” he informed Voxeurop. “Individuals left their properties and hometowns via a painful pressured course of and now that 5 villages (the place solely half of the inhabitants remained) is not going to be demolished as initially deliberate, some are questioning whether or not they need to return.” He factors out that RWE has the higher hand: “Those that want to come again fear about how to take action as a matter of legislation and cash, since RWE owns their properties and might not be prepared to present them again, whereas those that determine to not return should reside eternally with the data that they might have stayed.”
In 2022, a examine by the College of Aachen (close to Cologne) revealed the deterioration of residing situations as a result of RWE’s eviction coverage. In line with Tessmer, “regardless of [the fact that] RWE can’t be blamed for complying with a German legislation which is flawed in itself, the entire course of constitutes an unresolved violation of the UN Ideas on human rights”. These worldwide requirements assure a balanced safety of landowners and enterprise actions (2). The lawyer clarified that since they had been pressured to promote to RWE, the “individuals who left their properties in villages which can be not affected by coal mining have the appropriate to realize them again.”
Violation of the UN Ideas ought to result in an issuer’s exclusion, in accordance with Allianz’s Clear Planet ESG safeguards (that are technically outlined as “sustainability or SFDR disclosures” and prescribed by the EU laws). These precautions are binding components of the contract signed with traders. And but, RWE remains to be within the fund’s portfolio.
***
On the best way again to Cologne, the final cease on our “coal tour” with Ulla Kellerwessel is Hambach, the biggest of the three coal mines operated by RWE. Crowds of holiday makers take selfies in entrance of the grandiose however apocalyptic panorama beneath, whereas chilling out beneath seaside umbrellas with beds that the corporate put in. They’re surrounded by shiny posters selling RWE’s efforts to deploy the photo voltaic panels and wind generators which dot the perimeter of the open solid pit.
No signal submit explains that, since buying the land within the Nineteen Seventies, RWE has cleared the Hambach forest, one of many oldest in Europe, to progressively develop the mine.
Following large barricades by activists and courtroom orders to guard the endangered species lined by the EU’s Habitats Directive, the corporate needed to droop its clear-cutting actions in 2018, however may quickly resume them. RWE intends to excavate close to the village of Outdated Manheim to acquire materials for stabilising and recultivating the mine after its closure.
Dirk Jansen, managing director of the Dusseldorf-based NGO BUND (the German Affiliation for Setting and Nature Conservation), explains that susceptible species may nonetheless be affected: “Within the space of the deliberate excavation there’s additionally a small piece of forest the place RWE itself has recognized a summer time quarter for the extraordinarily uncommon Bechstein’s bat,” he stated. “Nonetheless, the realm remains to be exterior the scope of the present mining allow, which is because of be prolonged in January 2025 as a part of the lignite plan adopted by the Cologne district authorities, permitting RWE to clear this vital ecosystem.”
Surprisingly sufficient, Allianz invests in RWE via its Clear Planet, regardless of being a founding signatory of Nature Motion 10, a worldwide investor engagement initiative launched in 2023, which goals to reverse nature loss in keeping with the UN International Biodiversity Framework.
Chapter III
The world of inexperienced funds performs cool within the land of coal
To justify the investments in RWE via its Clear Planet fund, Allianz bets on the corporate’s controversial decarbonisation plans. The climate-transition trajectory of the German utility, it ought to be famous, is just not in keeping with the Paris Settlement, in accordance with impartial assessments (3). Regardless of investing billions in renewable energies and asserting a 27% discount in its direct GHG emissions by 2023, RWE will proceed to make use of lignite within the coming years. In 2023, electrical energy generated from coal was nonetheless equal to that generated from renewables, with a 3rd every (the remainder coming from pure gasoline and nuclear).
Local weather transition is just not sufficient to convey clear air
The RWE gradual local weather transition may result in extra untimely deaths and well being payments. “Whereas fossil gasoline combustion is definitely a local weather crime, phasing it out to scale back carbon emissions remains to be not sufficient to avoid wasting lives, given RWE’s reluctance to spend money on additional minimising poisonous air pollution from ongoing lignite burning,” Christian Schaible, head of the Zero Air pollution Trade unit on the Brussels-based NGO European Environmental Bureau, informed Voxeurop. In 2017, the EU adopted new requirements (as a part of the Industrial Emissions Directive) requiring giant combustion vegetation to make use of the perfect obtainable applied sciences to scale back their emissions. However as soon as once more, loopholes in EU laws on industrial emissions provide a carte blanche to large polluters like RWE to get away with no substantial obligations.
Corporations are free to select from a spread of roughly environment friendly applied sciences so long as they don’t exceed nationwide emission limits. “Like many different EU Member States, Germany went to the very best legally allowed air pollution ranges – i.e. these achievable via the much less performing applied sciences talked about within the EU requirements – not to what’s wanted to guard its residents and the surroundings,” stated Schaible.
RWE’s newest sustainability administration report states: “We’re persevering with to maintain throughout the statutory limits for emissions”, and that via “the newest expertise, we efficiently ensured the thresholds in 2023”. The insistent reference to authorized limits means that no extra is being accomplished than is required by legislation. “We will assume that RWE goes for the utmost air pollution ranges allowed by nationwide legislation, that are means larger than the very best ranges initially proposed by the European Fee’s professional group in the course of the negotiations on the brand new EU requirements, and [which were] ultimately opposed by Germany and different international locations with a powerful lignite and coal business,” Christian Schaible added. “The lax ranges set within the German legislation have been particularly designed to permit for enterprise as ordinary for lignite combustion-addicted operators resembling RWE.” We reached out a number of instances and thru totally different channels to RWE for a touch upon Shaible’s allegation. As we went to press, the corporate had not replied to our questions.
RWE’s alleged inaction to scale back air air pollution, albeit permitted by the German authorities, doesn’t look like in keeping with both the advertising communications or the commitments of the Clear Planet, Allianz’s “inexperienced” fund which holds shares within the German coal big.
By way of advertising, the teaser on the fund’s web site reads: “Air air pollution is liable for round 6.5 million untimely deaths yearly – 9 out of 10 individuals worldwide breathe extremely polluted air […] That is the place Allianz Clear Planet is available in […] It goals to […] do lasting good for society and the surroundings”.
By way of commitments, the fund’s SFDR disclosures exclude firms violating worldwide rules, specifically these set by the UN and the OECD which name for an efficient mitigation of environmental damages. “Our pointers advocate that firms ought to use the perfect obtainable applied sciences, even when there isn’t any authorized requirement from a nationwide authorities, with the intention to keep away from unfavourable impacts on individuals, planet and society,” clarified Allan Jorgensen, head of the OECD Centre for Accountable Enterprise (4).
Information and specialists pinpoint RWE’s untackled air air pollution
The Clear Planet’s SFDR disclosures additionally state that the ESG portion of the investments contains solely firms that don’t undermine any of the environmental targets set out within the EU Sustainable Funding Framework (per its taxonomy and associated acts). RWE claims that 90% of its capital expenditure meets these targets, however solely 17% of its income is taxonomy-aligned, that means that almost all of its earnings nonetheless originate from actions labeled as unsustainable, in accordance with the EU.
The EU laws prescribes asset managers to adjust to the “do no vital hurt” precept solely with regard to the portion of investments declared as totally sustainable (representing a smaller share of the Clear Planet fund). Allianz has the benefit to transcend this authorized requirement and, in precept, commits to exclude from its inexperienced portfolio all actions hindering “air pollution management prevention”, “safety of water assets” and of “restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems” (all of that are named within the EU environmental targets checklist).
Regardless of scoring poorly in all these three areas, as we discovered via information evaluation and professional opinion, RWE is just not banned from Allianz’s fund nor from the funds of many different asset managers which flaunt the identical restrictions. The dispute in regards to the Hambach ecosystem is just essentially the most tangible signal of the native influence of the coal’s extraction. The invisible scourge of air pollution is even worse.
In line with the EU pollutant register, RWE’s coal-fired energy vegetation account for nearly 75% of the nitrogen oxides (NOx), greater than 40% of the mercury and nearly 25% of each sulphur oxides (SOx) and advantageous particulate matter (PM) emitted by all industrial vegetation in North Rhine-Westphalia. High-quality particulate matter, particularly, comes not solely from energy vegetation but in addition from open-cast mines (the Garzweiler monitoring station has continuously reported ranges exceeding authorized limits).
In 2022 (the final yr for which firms need to report back to the EU), emissions of all 4 principal pollution are barely larger than in 2020 (after having fallen considerably in earlier years). This upward development is confirmed by RWE’s sustainability efficiency report 2022 which, nevertheless, exhibits far decrease absolute figures and doesn’t point out mercury emissions. The corporate refused to elucidate the discrepancy (5).
Scientific research point out, particularly, that NOx and mercury could possibly be lowered by as much as 85% and by 36-49% respectively by retrofitting coal-fired energy vegetation with abatement applied sciences (that are already utilized in the USA), able to limiting emissions to the bottom ranges set by EU requirements. Well being prices of between €93.2 and as much as €213 million for mercury and €2.379 billion for NOx related to all lignite vegetation in Germany could possibly be prevented yearly, whereas operator prices would enhance by solely 2%.
There was an answer, stated Christian Schaible of the European Environmental Bureau: “RWE may have lower its poisonous air pollution by greater than half, principally nitrogen oxides and mercury, had it made the hassle to spend money on more practical air pollution controls, specifically the Selective Catalytic Discount system (absent within the checklist of applied sciences talked about by RWE), that permit assembly the EU’s most stringent limits although technically achievable and economically viable situations.” RWE’s set targets are far much less formidable and don’t cowl mercury. “aiming to additional cut back NOx emissions by 35 % (per MWh) [,,,] till 2030.”
There was an answer, stated Schaible of the European Environmental Bureau: “RWE may have lower by greater than half its poisonous air pollution, principally nitrogen oxides and mercury, had it made the hassle to spend money on more practical air pollution controls, specifically the Selective Catalytic Discount system (absent from the checklist of applied sciences talked about by RWE), that permit assembly the EU most stringent limits although technically achievable and economically viable situations.” RWE’s set targets are far much less formidable and don’t cowl mercury, although “aiming to additional cut back NOx emissions by 35 % (per MW/h) […] till 2030.”
Most lignite vegetation have wasted the 4 years which elapsed between the adoption of EU emission requirements and the enforcement deadline in 2021 with out investing in cleaner applied sciences, thereby releasing tonnes of dangerous pollution that would have been prevented into the ambiance.
Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst on the Helsinki-based Centre for Analysis on Power and Clear Air, stated RWE “had an ethical obligation to use the expertise to scale back its emissions”. Nonetheless, he factors out that whereas the German firm had loads of time to put in this expertise, it’s now too late to take action, as a result of “the 2030 coal phase-out would go away little time for the brand new emission controls to make a distinction, even when the engineering to put in them was began now”.
His impartial organisation estimated that the variety of untimely deaths anticipated from coal-fired energy vegetation in Germany by 2030 (the early phase-out date for coal) could possibly be lowered from 13,000 to three,000 by utilizing essentially the most superior applied sciences. The figures are nevertheless approximate and could possibly be overestimated, because the examine is predicated on 2017 emissions information.
RWE air pollution additionally threatens water and soil
The environmental degradation brought on by RWE additionally extends to water and soil, two essential pure assets that Allianz’s Clear Planet Fund is dedicated to preserving. In line with the BUND NGO, open-cast mining brings earth-bound sulphates (e.g. pyrite) to the floor, which react with oxygen, releasing a stream of acid that’s washed into the subsoil by rain falls. Acid air pollution might enhance as groundwater, at the moment pumped out to allow coal extraction, rises once more when the mines shut.
BUND’s Dirk Jansen expanded on the three,200 sq. kilometres of land affected as we walked alongside the northern viewpoint of the Garzweiler mine. “10% of land in North Rhine-Westphalia is massively affected as a result of, yearly, RWE extracts 500 million cubic metres of groundwater which can take lots of or 1000’s of years to naturally return to its unique stage when the mining stops,” he stated. “That’s why the one resolution to avoid wasting the encompassing wetlands is to show the open-cast mines into lakes over the following 50 to 70 years with water piped in from the Rhine which can be contaminated.” In line with Jansen: “This further air pollution provides to the continued acidification which the corporate can solely management to a restricted extent by overlaying the sulphur-rich materials with giant portions of lime.” The usage of water for ingesting and agriculture, which has been impaired for years by coal mining, will solely be potential sooner or later at the price of in depth cleansing measures, he explains. The query is: “Who can pay – the corporate or the individuals?”
Related issues come up with coal energy plant ash which is disposed of in inside landfills and results in elevated concentrations of heavy metals (resembling nickel and zinc). This isn’t to say the mercury emitted by coal-fired energy vegetation (the largest supply of this heavy steel in Europe), which falls all the way down to earth with raindrops, infiltrates water and land and might enter the human meals chain, notably via agriculture and fish. The EU is sure by the UN Minamata Conference to scale back mercury releases from coal-fired vegetation to values nicely beneath these adopted by Germany and different EU member states. In 2015, a report by the German Federal Ministry of the Setting revealed that mercury ranges in waterways such because the river Rhine, which runs alongside the western financial institution of Cologne, are greater than twice the extent allowed by the EU (beneath the Water Framework Directive) and can proceed to exceed the authorized restrict within the close to future, affecting ecosystems and human well being.
“We will safely say that the mercury within the Rhineland area is usually from the airborne emissions which once more are principally from coal energy vegetation,” stated JaI Krishna Ranganathan, Senior Coverage Officer for Industrial Manufacturing on the European Environmental Bureau. “In reality, the reported emissions of mercury from thermal energy vegetation to air in North Rhine-Westphalia is a minimum of eight instances greater than the whole reported direct emissions into water our bodies in all of Germany.”
“With out decreasing mercury emissions from coal-fired energy vegetation, the issue of extreme concentrations within the Rhine basin is not going to be solved,” stated Cornelia Nicklas, head of the authorized division on the NGO Environmental Motion Germany, which along with the Brussels-based ClientEarth filed a lawsuit in opposition to the federal government of North Rhine-Westphalia in 2022 to implement the safety of the native waters. “The state authorities didn’t deny that the mercury focus within the water is linked to airborne mercury emissions from the air, however sadly it misjudges its accountability for the discount of the emissions, inter alia, with the argument that coal-fired vegetation meet the authorized thresholds.”
ESG magic: greening every little thing with self-made standards
We reached out to Allianz and shared the data we discovered on RWE’s unfavourable impacts, and requested if this sort of information was thought of as a part of theEnvironmental, Social and Governance targets (ESG) screening and funding choices of the Clear Planet. We requested the insurance coverage firm about its plans to interact with RWE on these points to watch the corporate’s compliance with the fund’s commitments. Allianz didn’t reply to our questions, regardless of a number of reminders.
The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) requirements set a lot of sustainability parameters (technically known as ‘Principal Adversarial Affect Indicators’ – PAIs) to measure each the unfavourable results of the actions carried out by the investee firms and their optimistic contributions to the fund targets.
Nonetheless, asset managers are sure to such indicators solely as a part of the general ESG technique, however not for the person merchandise they market (aside from the portion declared “sustainable”). That’s why the Clear Planet fund fails to quantify the general environmental and social impacts of its investments (that are solely put into figures at a gaggle stage, aggregating all of Allianz’s merchandise).
Asset managers are free to decide on any or none of ESMA’s influence indicators and even exchange them with their in-house indicators. Additionally, they’ve a large leeway to decide on their very own information and proprietary ranking system to find out what stage of influence ought to set off an engagement with particular person issuers and probably their exclusion from the portfolio.
An ESMA spokesperson defined: “The SFDR is a disclosure regulation, not a product regulation, subsequently the secret is that monetary market contributors have to be clear about how they measure the attainment of the product traits/ goal, via disclosing the indications, methodologies and the information sources”.
Allianz’s environmental and social indicators at each the group’s ESG coverage stage and at a fund stage (Clear Planet) embrace, amongst others, the discount of carbon footprint, water emissions and dangerous waste, in addition to compliance with the UN and OECD rules talked about above (6). Nonetheless, they don’t contemplate the abatement of atmospheric contaminants which symbolize a serious hostile influence of RWE’s actions. An Allianz spokesperson defined that this indicator is just not obligatory, since “emissions of air pollution is one in every of many non-obligatory PAIs (i.e. ESMA indicators) listed in […] (the) EU Regulation.”
The specialists disagree, although. “It’s deceptive to not embrace the emissions of air pollution within the Precept Adversarial Impacts whereas claiming to handle air air pollution on the fund’s web site,” Nicola Koch informed Voxeurop. He’s the head of the 2° Investing Initiative (2DII), an impartial, non-profit assume tank working to align monetary markets and regulation with the objectives of the Paris Settlement
The Clear Planet’s SFDR disclosures don’t even make clear which particular information was collected instantly from the issuers and from extra sources to measure the respective impacts of particular person investee firms. Furthermore, they state that assessments “could also be subjective, incomplete, inaccurate, or unavailable”, and that “in consequence, there’s a danger to incorrectly […] assess a safety or issuer”, with a subsequent “publicity to issuers who don’t meet the related standards of the Sustainable Funding Technique” (7).
In different phrases there isn’t any assure that the fund assessments on the hostile influence of RWE (or another issuer) are correct and mirror the truth on the bottom.
Axel Pierron, affiliate director of the Morningstar/Sustainalytics ranking company, defined: “Lack of transparency on the precise information and analysis standards used to evaluate particular person firms is a serious driver of what’s known as ‘methodological’ greenwashing, as sure asset managers might be tempted to pick the methodology that reduces their perimeter of funding the least.”
Sanctions focusing on potential mis-evaluations aren’t contemplated within the EU regulation, which affords complete discretion to asset managers.
A steep path forward to wash the planet
Nonetheless Mariyan Nikolov, analysis and coverage officer on the Brussels-based NGO Higher Finance, is optimistic: “As soon as the EU monetary sector-specific requirements are developed, as a part of the Company Sustainability Reporting Directive which might be enforced as of 2025, we hope to see higher built-in metrics which can permit retail traders to establish related data in a a lot simpler means to assist them with their funding choices”.
Enhancements are additionally anticipated from the reform of the EU investor safety legal guidelines, beneath overview, which ought to be sure that monetary establishments and funding advisers present correct data to their purchasers.
“As a part of the SFDR overview we ask for the introduction of product classes with clear sustainability targets, related to minimal standards, together with obligatory exclusions,” defined Pierre Garrault, Senior Coverage Adviser on the European Sustainable Funding Discussion board.
Specifically, the EU laws doesn’t explicitly exclude inexperienced fund firms from breaching the UN and OECD requirements on enterprise conduct. An ESMA spokesperson defined that: “Monetary market contributors should state whether or not or not sustainable investments within the portfolio are aligned with these rules.” This may be accomplished based mostly on the fund’s inside evaluation strategies.
Subsequently, in accordance with the inscrutable methodology of Allianz’s Clear Planet and that of funds marketed by different asset managers, RWE might qualify as a accountable funding just because an growing a part of its revenue is generated from renewables. The unfavourable influence that the non-renewable (coal-fired) a part of its energy era has on the surroundings and folks is arguably not factored into the sustainability equation. Nonetheless, the Clear Planet partial deviation from worldwide requirements, in addition to from the 1.5 °C international temperature situation of the Paris Settlement, is highlighted by exterior assessors.
“Allianz ought to push RWE to strengthen its transition coverage, reasonably than justifying the funding with the enlargement of the corporate’s renewables. These days, it is a frequent observe within the vitality sector”, stated Etica Sgr’s Fabio Moliterni.
Axel Pierron of the Morningstar/Sustainalytics ranking company affords another choice too: ”Allianz may for instance display that it’s participating with RWE to foster the adoption of extra environment friendly applied sciences to scale back its poisonous pollution with a transparent roadmap and targets to attain, and that ultimately, if its try in encouraging change is unsuccessful, divestment might be thought of.”
“Our survey exhibits that fifty% of retail traders desire inexperienced funds that have an effect,” stated Nicola Koch of the two° Investing Initiative (2DII). This implies: “Altering the behaviour of polluting firms, which is just potential via energetic engagement by asset managers”.
The Clear Planet SFDR disclosures state that engagements might be “triggered by sustainability controversies”, however “there isn’t any assure that the engagements undertaken will embrace issuers held by every fund”, as they’re “carefully linked to the extent of publicity”. As stated earlier, Allianz’s fund holds a comparatively small share in RWE.
“By means of constructive and significant dialogue, in addition to exercising voting rights, we underline our place to transition the sector to a low-carbon vitality provide,” stated an Allianz spokesperson.
2DII’s Nicola Koch factors out the shortage of proof of how Allianz is inexperienced. “The Clear Planet Fund’s environmental influence claims might be labeled as ‘unclear [and] deceptive’, since Allianz explicitly advertises on the fund’s web site a optimistic influence” he stated, “but it surely doesn’t present adequate proof to substantiate this declare. In reality, in our influence declare evaluation in 2013, a number of Allianz funds had been additionally flagged as a result of unclear proof.” In line with 2DII’s information, “Environmental influence claims for monetary merchandise might represent a deceptive business observe beneath shopper safety legislation (i.e. that are adopted by the EU – ed) […] if it incorporates data that would mislead the typical shopper, even when the data is factually appropriate, […]”.
The Allianz asset supervisor mentions its engagement with RWE however doesn’t make clear the if there was any optimistic final result. Additionally, there appears to be no document that Allianz proposed or voted on any initiative associated to environmental and social points throughout RWE’s basic conferences.
“Disclosures beneath SFDR need to be honest, clear and never deceptive,” confirmed an ESMA spokesperson. “Nationwide competent authorities have the investigatory powers to watch the compliance of economic market contributors with the necessities of the regulation.”
Nonetheless, the Belgian monetary market supervisor (FSMA) pleads helplessness, as its spokesperson informed us: “The fund you’re referring to (Clear Planet) is a Luxembourg fund, supervised by the Luxembourg regulator. The house supervisor of the fund is the competent authority.” But, throughout a gathering the place we posed as potential purchasers and requested about Allianz’s funding product Higher World (together with the Clear Planet fund), a Crelan financial institution agent confidently assured us that asset managers are first checked by FSMA, since “in any other case everybody may say ‘I provide sustainable merchandise’.”
The Luxembourg Monetary Sector Supervisory Fee (CSSF) additionally denied accountability, declaring the the administration firm is Allianz, a German firm which is supervised by Germany’s monetary regulator BaFin (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht). “It’s as much as the nationwide supervisory authority of the administration firm to watch compliance,” the CSSF spokesman stated. “Nonetheless, we stay the competent authority for the supervision of the fund and […] might […] uncover discrepancies and […] share such data with the nationwide competent authority and can duly contemplate […] supervisory work on this fund,” he stated, referring to Clear Planet. ESMA clarified that the dedication of the competent authority depends upon the case, given the overlap between totally different items of laws.
Norbert Winzen, as a substitute, didn’t flip away from his inexperienced ethics. Again on his farm, he determined to interrupt the silence on the fund’s questionable claims. In an e-mail addressed in October 2024 to Allianz’s funding division, which he shared with us, he he requested the important thing query: “RWE will proceed to mine lignite 400 metres from the place I reside till a minimum of 2030. I see each day how the corporate is massively affecting the surroundings, so why ought to I, as an investor with sustainability rules, spend money on your Clear Planet fund?”
After a number of weeks, an Allianz fund supervisor lastly replied to Winzen in mid-November, he informed us. The Clear Planet fund supervisor admitted that RWE’s coal enterprise has a unfavourable influence, however identified that the corporate was included in additional than 500 sustainability funds. He stated that the ranking companies thought of its sustainability profile to be “optimistic”. He added that the fund had lately bought its shares in RWE, although with out offering any proof. We requested Allianz’s communication division to formally affirm this data, however we had no reply. In line with essentially the most up to date holdings breakdown we obtained from the funding analysis firm Morningstar, Clear Planet nonetheless held over 10,360 shares, value $208,000 million, in RWE till the tip of September 2024.
Stefano Valentino is a Bertha Problem Fellow 2024.
This text is a part of the investigation coordinated by Voxeurop with the assist of the Bertha Problem fellowship. With the contribution of Alef Ferreira Lopez, Information Evaluation Assistant, PhD Scholar in Economics, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais
Footnotes
1) The affiliation between vitality transition and clear air within the targets of the Clear Planet arises from the mixed statements hereafter:
Fund overview
The fund invests a minimal of 90% of its belongings within the shares of worldwide firms which provide merchandise or options that contribute to overcoming challenges associated to a few dimensions of a clear surroundings (clear air, clear land, and clear water).
Corporations participating in work in service a cleaner surroundings provide merchandise and/ or companies with an energetic optimistic contribution to the development of challenges associated to a few key dimensions of a clear surroundings which embrace the core themes of clear land, the vitality transition, and clear water.
2) In line with the UN Guiding Ideas on Enterprise and Human Rights: “It’s equally vital for States to overview whether or not […] legal guidelines present the required protection in gentle of evolving circumstances and whether or not, along with related insurance policies, they supply an surroundings conducive to enterprise respect for human rights. For instance, higher readability in some areas of legislation and coverage, resembling these governing entry to land, together with entitlements in relation to possession or use of land, is commonly needed to guard each rights-holders and enterprise enterprises.”
3) Related research embrace:
https://www.climateaction100.org/firm/rwe-aktiengesellschaft/#skeletabsPanel2
https://www.worldbenchmarkingalliance.org/publication/electric-utilities/firms/rwe
https://www.clientearth.org/initiatives/the-greenwashing-files/rwe
4) In line with the OECD Tips for Multinational Enterprises: “Specifically, enterprises ought to [be]: figuring out and assessing hostile environmental impacts related to an enterprise’s operations, […] getting ready an applicable environmental influence evaluation; […] or co-operating in remediation as needed to handle hostile environmental impacts the enterprise has induced […] Conduct significant engagement with related stakeholders affected by hostile environmental impacts related to an enterprise’s operations […] Frequently search to enhance environmental efficiency […], together with by: a) adopting applied sciences, the place possible finest obtainable applied sciences, to enhance environmental efficiency”.
In line with the Ten Ideas of the UN International Compact: “Companies ought to encourage the event and diffusion of environmentally pleasant applied sciences. Environmentally sound applied sciences, as outlined in Agenda 21 of the Rio Declaration, ought to defend the surroundings […]. They embrace a wide range of cleaner manufacturing processes and air pollution prevention applied sciences […] to scale back day-to-day […] emissions of environmental contaminants […]”.
5) A examine revealed in 2024 exhibits that the danger of demise from inhaling particulate matter from coal-fired energy stations is greater than two instances larger than from different sources. Analysis additionally exhibits that nitrogen and sulphur oxides and particulate matter trigger respiratory and heart problems, whereas mercury causes mind harm in human foetuses and younger kids. Nitrogen oxide additionally contributes to the acidification of water and soil, with unfavourable results on biodiversity, and will increase the formation of secondary particulate matter (PM) and likewise ozone (NO2, one other dangerous compound).
6) The Clear Plant fund prospectus states: “As a primary step selling environmental and social traits, by excluding direct investments in sure issuers that are concerned in controversial environmental or social enterprise actions from the funding universe of the Sub-Fund by making use of exclusion standards. Inside this course of the Funding Supervisor excludes investee firms that severely violate good governance practices and rules and pointers such because the Ideas of the United Nations International Compact, the OECD Tips for Multinational Enterprises, and the United Nations Guiding Ideas for Enterprise and Human Rights”.
7) The Clear Planet’s SDFR disclosures mentions that information is sourced from the ranking companies ISS, MSCI and Truecost and that “per every firm the fund funding supervisor might use “a number of totally different third-party […] suppliers and/ or inside analyses”.
Allianz did not make clear which particular information was used to fee RWE in opposition to the fund’s exclusion commitments.
In line with MSCI’s scoreboard, RWE is “concerned in severe-to-moderate stage controversies”, together with the surroundings, human rights and influence on native communities (with no additional particulars), and is misaligned with the surroundings and well being sections of the UN Sustainable Improvement Targets (SDGs). Nonetheless, the Clear Planet SFDR disclosures pledge that every one the ESG-compliant belongings within the fund (together with RWE) are in keeping with the SDGs.
As an alternative, the ISS considers as a substitute that as of 2024 there isn’t any indication of insufficient remedial efforts concerning […] relocated residents, nor any ongoing allegations of materialised impacts to neighborhood residing requirements”, and “there are not any ongoing allegations concerning RWE’s method to abatements and its potential unfavourable impacts on the local weather” (with out contemplating the influence on well being).
Additionally, nowhere is it talked about that Allianz has entry to RWE’s inside environmental administration system which retains observe of the potential impacts which aren’t made public. The most recent Sustainability Technique Report of the German utility solely exhibits the diploma of protection (reasonably than the amount and high quality of the incidents) as a efficiency indicator, unsurprisingly scoring 99% in 2023.
