Report: Dutch pension ABP invested €1 billion in nuclear weapons

By Janene Pieters on November 12, 2015 - 09:44
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Nuclear weapons test in America in 1954 (Photo: United States Department of Energy/Wikimedia Commons). (Nuclear weapons test in America in 1954 (Photo: United States Department of Energy/Wikimedia Commons))

Dutch pension fund ABP invested nearly one billion euros in companies that produce parts for nuclear weapons over the past three and a half years. This makes the pension funds for civil servants one of the biggest Dutch investors in nuclear weapons.

This is according to research done by peacekeeping operation PAX, BNR reports. The pension fund invested a total of 988 million euros in nuclear weapons producers. Krista van Velzen, nuclear disarmament campaigner at PAX, says that this proves that ABP's recent announcement that it intends to implement a progressive sustainability police is a "farce".

ABP thinks that PAX is drawing the situation out of context. "PAX is referring to our investemets in, for example, the Boeing company", Corien Wortmann, ABP chairman, said to BNR. "They make nuclear weapons components. But that is for countries who own nuclear weapons under treaties also signed by the Netherlands." The chairman added that it is also a relatively small part of a large company.

All in all the Dutch financial institutions invested less money in nuclear weapons manufacturers this year than in 2014. In 2015 banks, insurers and pension funds invested 2.3 billion in such companies, compared to 2.5 billion euros last year. The top three investors in nuclear weapons in the Netherlands are ABP, Aegon with 659 million euros and ING with 400 million euros.

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