PKA’s Peter Damgaard Jensen named as chair of Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change

Peter Damgaard Jensen, CEO of Danish pension fund manager PKA, is the new chair of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), the main European investor body focused on climate change.

Jensen replaces Donald MacDonald who is retiring (see RI interview) as chair after five years with the organization, which represents 132 investors with over €14trn in assets under management.

The IIGCC’s secretariat is headed by Chief Executive Stephanie Pfeifer.

Commenting on his new role, Damgaard Jensen said: “In recent years IIGCC’s membership has grown rapidly alongside its growing influence on climate and energy policy across the EU and in key international forums. IIGCC’s members and the substantial assets they represent make IIGCC an organisation that policy makers and governments now take seriously – as became particularly clear during the climate negotiations at COP 21 that delivered the Paris Agreement.”

Damgaard Jensen has been CEO of PKA, which manages the pension funds of health and social sector workers, since 2001.Before this he held a range of management positions at trade union Danish Nurses Organisation.

Currently, he also is a member of the advisory board of The Danish Climate Investment Fund for climate investments in emerging markets.

PKA, one of Denmark’s largest pension funds with €35bn in assets under management, became a member of IIGCC in 2010; and Damgaard Jensen joined its board in 2013.

Last year, PKA pursued a coal dependence reduction strategy with its holdings, following a divestment of firms where coal made up 90% of its sales.

It also made its fifth investment in offshore wind teaming up with the LEGO Group to acquire half of a 256MW park to be built in the Irish Sea for DKK6.6bn last year.

The IIGCC works with its fellow investors bodies, the US-focused Investor Network on Climate Risk (INCR), the Australasian Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC) and the Hong Kong-based Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC). In 2012 the groups got together to form the Global Investor Coalition on Climate Change.