According to the UN Environment Programme species of plants and animals are increasingly disappearing. And this is alarming - both for nature, the climate and the economy.

The UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal in 2022 ended with a landmark agreement about protecting and restoring global biodiversity. It was among other things decided that the biodiversity loss must be reversed by 2030. And by then, also 30 percent of the world's nature must be permanently protected.

P+ supports the Montreal Protocol. And on these grounds, the pension fund introduced its first overall plan for the work with biodiversity in 2023.

Increased active ownership

P+ has, as one of the first investors, joined two new global investor cooperation initiatives focusing on stewardship. These are PRI Spring and Nature Action 100

Nature Action 100 aims at exercising active ownership towards the world's 100 companies with the largest dependency or impact on the nature and biodiversity to mobilise them to handle adverse impact and contribute to reverse the loss of biodiversity. Spring aims to exercise active ownership with special focus on issues within deforestation and land degradation. 

At the same time, we also exercise active ownership via EOS and conduct direct engagement with both investment managers and chosen Danish companies within i.a. the food and pharmaceutical industry about their work with biodiversity. 

Mapping nature-related risks

P+ has conducted a screening of its equity portfolio which can provide insight into the nature-related risks which may impact the investments. The screening is completed using the so-called ENCORE tool which is developed by the Natural Capital Finance Alliance (NCFA) in cooperation with the United Nations Enviroment Programme (UNEP) aiming to help financial institutions understand and handle these risks. 

Collection of biodiversity data is still in its early stages and constantly evolving as it is a complex task to measure nature-related impacts and dependencies. However, the ENCORE analysis is a way to understand how environmental changes may impact on our investments, as well as assess how our investments may impact on natural resources and certain geographical areas.

Based on the analysis, P+ has mapped the impacts and dependencies that its equity portfolio has on nature. The most significant impacts from the portfolio are through water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions and pollution of water and soil. At the same time, the equity portfolio's most significant dependencies on natural resources are linked to water resources such as surface water and groundwater.

For P+'s portfolio, especially investments within the sectors pharmaceuticals, industrial machinery, microchip technology and transportation have impacts and dependencies on nature. 

Based on the analysis, P+ has completed a list of companies in the portfolio that are particularly important to assess and handle in relation to nature-related risks. P+ will use this list to strenghten efforts related to biodiversity among other things by selecting companies to engage in further dialogue with. This will be done in continuation of the active ownership already exercised through our business partner EOS and via our asset managers.