In 2008, when the archbishop of the Church of Sweden convened a conference on the threats posed by climate change, the church’s investment managers took notice. The next year, they began removing fossil fuel companies from the church’s financial portfolio — a process that was completed last month with the removal of several natural gas companies.
Climate change “is an important issue for the church and its members,” said Anders Thorendal, the chief investment officer of the Church of Sweden. It did not make sense, he added, to keep fossil fuel companies — whose products result in climate-warming emissions — in the church’s portfolio.
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