Ekonomikanalen

Swedish Riksbank’s investments environmentally unsafe

The investments of the Swedish Riksbank may contribute to the failure of the Paris Agreement. The bank is lacking directives for sustainability.

The foreign currency reserve consists mainly of bonds from nations with high creditworthiness. Most of them are from the USA, but about five percent are bonds issued in Australian dollars.

Ulf Erlandsson, investment manager of the sustainable fund Glacier Impact, does not approve.

“We feel that one shouldn´t invest in Australian bonds, and thereby help financing coal mines”, Erlandsson says.

Australia has large coal reserves and Erlandsson is critical towards how the country utilizes them. The bond purchases of the Swedish central bank are indirectly supporting the exploitation of these coal reserves.

The Swedish Riksbank does not acknowledge this critique.

“We don’t examine single investments when purchasing bonds”, says Heidi Elmér, Head of Markets Department.

The Riksbank does not yet have any written directives concerning sustainability in the foreign currency reserve.