Selma van Oostwaard / PAX for Peace & Maaike Beenes / Don’t Bank of the Bomb & Susi Snyder / Don’t Bank on the Bomb – 2018-01-11 21:00:34
Breaking News: A Major Step Forward as ABP Drops Nuclear Investments
Selma van Oostwaard / PAX for Peace
(January 11, 2018) — We received great news today: the largest pension funds in the Netherlands has decided to end its investment in nuclear weapon producers! We had a big campaign against ABP planned, which is not needed anymore :). ABP mentioned the shifts in national and international context and the ban treaty as strong arguments to make this decision.
Please find below more information, and please share the good news tweet on the No Nukes Twitter account and/or Don’t Bank on the Bomb account
Happy greetings,
Maaike, Susi, Krista and Selma, the PAX No Nukes team
Largest Dutch Pension Fund ABP
To Divest from Nuclear Weapons
Maaike Beenes / Don’t Bank of the Bomb
(January 11, 2018) — The largest Dutch pension fund, the civil servants fund ABP, has decided to end its investments in producers of nuclear weapons. ABP has “finally made the right decision”, says PAX campaigner Krista van Velzen. “After years of campaigning by PAX against the unacceptable investments by the ABP in nuclear weapon producers, the pension fund has now realized these are not acceptable investments. It’s good to see the ABP will now end these investments.”
The ABP was under increasing pressure since last summer, when the international treaty banning nuclear weapons was adopted in the United Nations. The pension fund recognizes that this global ban on nuclear weapons was decisive in its decision.
“This is great news for all teachers, public servants, police officers and politicians, whose pension money will no longer be invested in weapons of mass destruction”, said Van Velzen.
“Amazing Mews”
PAX publishes a yearly report investigating investments in producers in nuclear weapons, Don’t Bank on the Bomb.
The most recent update of the report, published in 2016, showed the ABP invested around USD 1 billion in producers of nuclear weapons. PAX will publish new research this year. Van Velzen:
“The ABP will still be shown to have investments in the upcoming report because it will take a year to divest completely, but after this decision they are the example all other financial institutions that haven’t divested yet should follow.”
For years, PAX has been campaigning against the investments of ABP in nuclear weapon producers. PAX joined ABP pensioner meetings to make clear that their is no support for their investment of about 1 billion dollars in nuclear weapon producers. PAX was also present at the dialogue between the ABP-board and civil society on its new sustainability policy.
For more information on the PAX Don’t Bank on the Bomb report and investments in nuclear weapon producers go to www.dontbankonthebomb.com.
Nobel Foundation to Divest from Nuclear Weapon Producers
Susi Snyder / Don’t Bank on the Bomb
(October 30, 2017) — On Friday 27 October, the Nobel Foundation announced its intention to divest from nuclear weapon producing companies. Nobel Foundation director Lars Heikensten said, “At the latest, by March next year we will have no investment in anything that is connected with any kind of production which is classified as connected with nuclear weapons”.
Framtiden i vÃ¥re hender (Future in our hands -Norway) is Norway’s largest environmental and solidarity organization, it reported that there was a connection between the Nobel Foundation and nuclear weapon producing companies earlier this month.
Heikensten said that after a hardening of the its ethical rules, the foundation had stopped investing, even indirectly, in producers of nuclear weapons, and that it had given itself 12 months to adjust or opt out of funds that invest in companies that manufacture these bombs.
“We welcome the announcement by Mr. Heikensten, and anticipate that the Foundation will remove all direct and indirect investment in nuclear weapon producers from its portfolio without delay” said Susi Snyder, coordinator of Don’t Bank on the Bomb.
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
PAX and ICAN produce regular research analysing investment into nuclear weapon producing companies, and advocate divestment through Don’t Bank on the Bomb. This research focuses on financial institutions — their investments and policies, and therefore does not show individual investors, nor does it identify specific indices that are connected to nuclear weapon producers.
ICAN campaigners have also been behind efforts to end funding for companies associated with the production of nuclear weapons.
Susi Snyder is the Nuclear Disarmament Programme Manager for Pax in the Netherlands. Mrs. Snyder has coordinated the research, publication and campaigning activities surrounding the annually updated Don’t Bank on the Bomb report since 2013. She has published numerous reports and articles, including Dealing with a Ban (2015); The Rotterdam Blast: The immediate humanitarian consequences of a 12 kiloton nuclear explosion (2014); and Withdrawal Issues: What NATO countries say about the future of tactical nuclear weapons in Europe (2011).
She is an International Steering Group member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and a 2016 Nuclear Free Future Award Laureate. Previously, Mrs. Snyder served as the Secretary General of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom at their Geneva secretariat.
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