The top 21 institutional investors hold 50% of the fossil fuel company shares and bonds identified in Urgewald\u2019s research (see Table 1 in Annex). The US-based asset managers Vanguard ($659.5 billion) and BlackRock ($553.3 billion) plus Saudi Arabia\u2019s Public Investment Fund ($283.7 billion) account for nearly a quarter (23%) of institutional fossil fuel investments worldwide.<\/p>\n
Apart from the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (rank 9, $91.3 billion), UBS from Switzerland (rank 14, $71.7 billion), Royal Bank of Canada (rank 17, $67.2 billion), and the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan (rank 19, $63.8 billion), US-based asset managers dominate the rest of the top 20 ranking.<\/p>\n
All in all, European institutional investors hold 13% of the identified fossil fuel shares and bonds. Norway\u2019s Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) is Europe\u2019s largest fossil fuel investor. As Dina Rui from the Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance comments, \u201cYou can\u2019t claim to be a climate leader when you are Europe\u2019s largest investor in ExxonMobil. When it comes to climate change, the GPFG is Europe\u2019s most irresponsible investor.\u201d Next in the<\/p>\n
European line-up are Switzerland\u2019s UBS, Cr\u00e9dit Agricole with its asset manager Amundi from France ($56.3 billion), Deutsche Bank with its asset manager DWS from Germany ($43.8 billion), and Legal & General from the UK ($38.0 billion).<\/p>\n<\/div>
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<\/span>Bond Maturities Stretching Up to the 22nd Century<\/h2><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Fossil fuel companies raise a significant share of their financing by issuing bonds. Their primary buyers are institutional investors like mutual funds, pension funds, insurers and hedge funds. Urgewald\u2019s research identifies institutional investments of $64 billion in fossil fuel bonds maturing after 2050. Over 240 investors, including big players like TIAA, the Government Pension Investment Fund of Japan, BlackRock, Toronto-Dominion and JPMorgan Asset Management, hold fossil fuel bonds with maturities stretching to 2080 and beyond.<\/p>\n
One of the companies that has issued bonds with maturity dates between 2080 and 2084 is the Canadian company Enbridge, which transports around 30% of the oil produced in North America. Enbridge\u2019s Line 3 and Line 5 tar sands pipelines across Minnesota are a ticking time bomb (5) and violate indigenous land rights. The company is also pursuing disastrous projects such as the Woodfibre LNG terminal, which endangers the fragile marine ecosystem of British Columbia\u2019s Howe Sound. Enbridge has audaciously dubbed it \u201cthe world\u2019s first net-zero LNG export facility\u201d. (6) Among the top investors in Enbridge bonds are Manulife Financial from Canada and TIAA from the US.<\/p>\n
The longest-running fossil fuel bond identified in Urgewald\u2019s research was issued by Brazil\u2019s national oil company Petrobras and has a maturity date in 2115.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
<\/i>Petrobras\u2019 aims to continue expanding its oil production beyond 2050, and is sacrificing Brazil\u2019s most fragile ecosystems and communities along the way. Last fall it began drilling off the Amazon coast and recently announced that it will re-start its drilling operations in the Amazon rainforest. Investing in Petrobras bonds means backing oil expansion well beyond the timeframe required to meet global climate targets,<\/p>\n<\/div>
Alisson Capelli De Souza, Environmental Campaigner at the Arayara International Institute in Brazil<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>
Among Petrobras\u2019 long-term bondholders are Franklin Resources (USA), Manulife Financial (Canada), Royal London Group (UK), BlackRock (USA), OTP Bank Group (Hungary), and UBS (Switzerland).<\/p>\n<\/div>
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<\/span>There Is a Better Way<\/h2><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div>
In June 2026, the Swiss Association for Responsible Investments (SVVK-ASIR), which unites 12 major Swiss pension funds and insurers with total assets of over $350 billion, recommended that its members stop buying debt securities of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Marathon Petroleum, Saudi Aramco, PBF Energy, Philips 66 and Valero Energy Corporation. (7) This is the first time that SVVK-ASIR has issued a \u201cDeny Debt\u201d recommendation.<\/p>\n
Other institutional investors have gone even further. Nordea Asset Management no longer participates in bond issues of companies expanding their oil and gas production. (8) Europe\u2019s third-largest asset manager BNP Paribas Asset Management denies debt to all upstream oil and gas producers.(9) France\u2019s fourth-largest asset manager Ofi Invest denies debt to companies involved in the production of non-conventional fossil fuels, in expansion or exploration projects and in LNG exports.(10) France\u2019s SCOR, one of the world\u2019s largest reinsurers, no longer invests in shares and bonds of oil and gas companies with upstream expansion plans.(11) And Netherlands-based PFZW \u2013 the world\u2019s 14th-largest pension fund \u2013 divested 310 oil and gas producers in 2024, including Shell, BP and TotalEnergies. Only 7 upstream oil and gas producers remain in PFZW\u2019s portfolio. As Joanne Kellerman, Chair of PFZW\u2019s Board, explained, \u201cThe intensive shareholder dialogue over the past 2 years with the oil and gas sector on climate has made it clear to us that most fossil fuel companies are not prepared to adapt their business models to Paris.\u201d(12) In 2025, PFZW also ceased investing in BlackRock-managed stock funds, citing lack of alignment on climate.(13)<\/p>\n
\u00ab\u00a0While some institutions have taken significant steps in the right direction, our research shows that most institutional investors are failing both our climate and their own long-term fiduciary duty. Investments in the old energy world typically account for less than 5% of an investor\u2019s portfolio, but they are fueling a crisis that puts 95% of their investments at risk. There are no safe pensions, no safe savings, no safe returns in a climate-destabilized world,\u00a0\u00bb concludes Sch\u00fccking.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>