Coal news and updates

AP7 Adds to Blacklist, Targets Chinese Coal Companies

On December 8, 2021, the Swedish buffer fund AP7 updated its blacklist and added a total of seven new companies including five Chinese coal-fired power companies. The blacklist is updated twice per annum. The five Chinese companies blacklisted by AP6 due to the 2015 Climate Paris agreement are China Power International Development Ltd., China Shenhua Energy Company Ltd, Huadian Power International Corporation Limited, Shanxi Lu’an Environmental Energy Development Co Ltd, and TBEA Co Ltd.

AP7 invests in companies that in an acceptable way adhere to the international norms and conventions signed by Sweden. These are expressed in the UN Global Compact’s ten principles on human rights, labor, the environment and anti-corruption. AP7 does not invest in companies involved in the development or production of nuclear weapons. Since 2016 the Paris Agreement to the UN Climate convention (UNFCCC) is included in our norms-based screening. The blacklisting methods was broadened during 2020 to exert influence on companies that continue to expand their fossil-fuel activities in coal production and coal power, thereby counteracting the goals in the Paris Agreement.

According to AP7, “The other two new companies that are also blacklisted are Wärtsilä Oyj Abp for involvement in the production of components for nuclear weapons and Ratch Group Public Co. Ltd. based on inadequate human rights management and compensation in connection with a collapsed hydropower plant in Laos.”