By John Revill
BERN (Reuters) -Environmentalists protested at the Swiss National Bank’s AGM on Friday, urging the central bank to divest from companies they say contribute to environmental devastation in regions like the Amazon rainforest and Brazil’s Cerrado savannah.
The protest in Bern targeted the SNB’s holdings in firms identified in a University College London (UCL) study as ‘Environmental Tipping Point’ companies — corporations whose activities they say trigger irreversible ecological damage.
Campaigners stood outside the bank’s shareholders’ meeting with a banner saying “Deforestation is not a Swiss value” and placards showing an image of SNB Chairman Martin Schlegel mocked up with a speech bubble saying “burn baby burn.”
Activists demanded stricter exclusion criteria for the SNB’s investments and for the central bank to use its influence as a shareholder to influence companies’ behaviour.
If companies do not comply with the SNB’s guidelines not to purchase securities in companies that systematically cause severe environmental damage, the central bank should divest, they said.
“If the SNB ignores climate and environmental risks in its monetary decisions, it is acting shortsightedly and neglecting its duty to protect future generations,” said Asti Roesle from Climate Alliance Switzerland.
She added that climate change is already visibly impacting Switzerland through melting glaciers and destructive weather, which was causing landslides and economic damage.
Roesle, who is due to address shareholders at the meeting, said the SNB could wield significant influence due to its sizable equity investments — about 25% of its 756 billion Swiss francs ($914 billion) in foreign reserves are held in global stocks.
The SNB maintains a market-neutral, passive investment strategy, and is not tasked by the Swiss government with influencing the development of specific economic sectors, instead focusing mainly on controlling inflation.
Its sustainability report says it excludes companies that severely harm the environment, violate human rights, or produce banned weapons. It also excludes companies that mine coal for energy production.
Critics argue this stance falls short, and want an approach similar to Norway’s sovereign wealth fund which tells companies about its climate change expectations and votes on the issue.
The central bank was still invested in companies that cause climate damage, said Guillaume Durin from the Swiss climate group BreakFree, calling for more transparency from the SNB.
“The SNB does not respect its own rules,” Durin said. “As a passive investor, the SNB becomes complicit in the degradation of ecosystems critical to the planet’s balance.”
($1 = 0.8275 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by John Revill, Editing by William Maclean)
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