Fund to finance nuclear waste management
| Fund to finance nuclear waste management (KENFO) |
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| Legal form: | Foundation under public law |
| Purpose: | Financing of the search for and operation of nuclear interim and final storage facilities in Germany |
| Chair: |
Anja Mikus Victor Maftakhar Thomas Bley |
| Board of Trustees: | Thorsten Herdan (Chairman), Olav Gutting (Deputy Chairman) |
| Consist: | June 16, 2017 |
| Founder: | Federal Republic of Germany |
| Foundation capital: | 24.1 billion euros |
| Number of employees: | 20th |
| Seat: | Berlin |
| Website: | www.kenfo.de |
The funds to finance the nuclear waste management ( KENFO , also known as "decommissioning funds" or "Nuclear Funds") with headquarters in Berlin is a public foundation that on 16 June 2017 law set up was and the long-term financing of the disposal of radioactive To ensure waste in Germany.
organization
In addition to the 3-person board of directors, there is a board of trustees that monitors the board and decides on all fundamental questions related to the fulfillment of the foundation's purpose. The Board of Trustees can consult the Bundesbank in this regard. The board of trustees consists of representatives from the Federal Ministry of Finance, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, as well as members of the German Bundestag.
An investment committee has been set up to advise the Board of Trustees, the members of which have experience in portfolio management, investment of funds or risk management. In 2017 and 2018, the investment committee consisted of the following five members: Maximilian Zimmerer (Chairman; formerly member of the Board of Management of Allianz Group, Munich), Mats Andersson (formerly Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Swedish State Fund AP4, Stockholm), Elga Bartsch (Head of Economics - and capital market research at BlackRock Investment Institute, London), Martin Korbmacher (managing partner of Event Horizon Capital & Advisory GmbH, Frankfurt) and Jochen Wermuth (founding partner of Green Growth Funds & Wermuth Asset Management GmbH, Berlin).
History of origin
After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima , the federal government decided in 2011 to withdraw Germany from nuclear energy . All nuclear power plants in Germany must therefore be decommissioned by 2022. The nuclear power plant operators were responsible for the subsequent phase of dismantling the facilities and disposing of the nuclear waste. However, there were fears that the operating companies could collapse below the expected costs. For this reason, it was decided to shift long-term responsibility from the operators to the state.
The four German nuclear power plant operators E.ON , EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg , RWE and Vattenfall paid the legally stipulated basic contribution of 17,930,977,226 euros as well as a 35 percent risk surcharge of 6,216,875,476 euros to the Deutsche Bundesbank transferred . These 24.1 billion euros represent the nuclear fund's capital stock. In the future, the fund will invest this money in the capital market and finance the search for suitable interim and final storage facilities with the help of the capital gains .
Investment guidelines
When investing this first German sovereign wealth fund , the criteria of environment, social affairs and responsible corporate management (including environment social governance criteria or ESG criteria) should be integrated into the investment strategy in addition to the return . The investment guidelines were issued in 2017 by the Federal Ministry of Finance in agreement with the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety ( BAnz AT 06/30/2017 B1 ).
“The sustainability approach for stocks and corporate bonds developed by the disposal fund is based on a combination of a best-in-class approach, a best-in-progress approach and exclusion criteria.
The best-in-class approach is that investments are only made in the 75 percent best-rated companies within an industry by ESG data providers.
The best-in-progress approach stipulates that investments can also be made to a limited extent in companies that have not yet achieved best-in-class status but are making particular progress in the area of sustainability.
The exclusion criteria cover: (i) companies that operate or control companies that operate nuclear power plants; a 5 percent turnover limit is applied; (ii) Companies that have committed serious violations of the principles of the UN Global Compact or are excluded from the UN Global Compact initiative from the outset.
The Management Board is currently working on a proposal for possible further exclusion criteria for shares and corporate bonds. The board of directors will submit its proposal to the board of trustees for decision. "
To implement these requirements, the commissioned asset managers can work with an ESG data provider of their choice.
Investments
By July 2018, the fund had invested around 10 percent or 2.5 billion euros in government bonds . The remaining funds were still with the Bundesbank and caused a loss of 70 million euros due to the ECB's low interest rate policy .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Financing the nuclear phase-out website of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
- ↑ Nuclear power plant operators have made payments to nuclear waste disposal funds in the amount of approx. 24 billion euros provided Website of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
- ↑ General administrative regulation for the foundation "Fund for the financing of nuclear waste disposal" according to § 9 paragraph 2 sentence 1 of the Waste Disposal Fund Act (Annex Directive). In: Climate protection digital. June 27, 2017, accessed May 21, 2020 .
- ^ German Bundestag - 19th electoral term, Drucksache19/6247, pages 6–7 , from December 4, 2018
- ↑ Financing nuclear waste: State nuclear fund still loses money after a year due to negative interest rates. In: Handelsblatt. July 10, 2019, accessed May 21, 2020 .