Towards a fossil free future

No more than 2-degrees

The 2-degree warming scenario is widely acknowledged as the global community’s accepted upper limit of temperature growth to avoid the worst changes in our environment. Preferably, we need to hit the brakes at 1.5 degrees.

The Max 2° approach

Climate action is the most important sustainability topic at Nordea. And we work hard to keep our sustainable funds aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement. By making our best to ensure that investee companies take part in the global effort to keep temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celcius compared to pre-industrial levels. 

View our Fossil Fuel Policy here

Q&A: How can Nordea Funds make a difference?

Harry Granqvist is Senior ESG Analyst at Nordea. And he keeps his finger on the pulse of climate-aware investments and the fossil-free future.

First, tell us about Nordea’s stance on tackling climate change?

Climate change is a problem we simply need to address as soon as possible. At Nordea, we believe that the most important measure we can take to limit global warming is to bring down emissions from fossil fuels. This can only be done if we recognize that many of the key energy providers of tomorrow are currently in a phase-out period where they are reducing the use of fossil fuels, but the complete elimination of fossil fuels in most countries is a decade or more away.

How can this be done in practice?

To take just one example, we actively use the research from the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) to understand if a company’s strategy helps or hinders the Paris climate goals. TPI excel by focusing on future rather than past climate efforts – which makes their analysis a powerful tool for investors to help drive climate action.

How will companies be assessed and ranked?

- In short, we differentiate between companies that deliver enough change to help us meet the global warming target of the Paris Agreement companies, we call them ‘transition companies’, and those that keep emissions high – and doesn't show will to change.

Can you please elaborate?

- At Nordea, we want to support the change that the world desperately needs to curb global warming. But we also know that modern societies need an increasing amount of energy. So, we simply need to give companies some transition time to be able adopt and invest in modern, and sometimes quite costly, green business models and technologies.

This is not an overnight thing. But we need some kind of proof that companies make a sufficient effort to get there – and we need to send a clear message to companies that aren’t.