Future Ireland Fund and Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund Act 2024
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Investment in fossil fuel undertakings | ||
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31. (1) (a) The Agency shall endeavour to ensure that the assets of a relevant Fund are not directly invested in a fossil fuel undertaking. | ||
(b) Where the Agency becomes aware that an undertaking in which the assets of a relevant Fund are directly invested is, or becomes, a fossil fuel undertaking, the Agency shall divest the assets of the relevant Fund from such investment as soon as practicable. | ||
(2) The Agency shall endeavour to ensure that the assets of a relevant Fund are not invested in an indirect investment, unless it is satisfied on reasonable grounds that such indirect investment is unlikely to have in excess of 15 per cent of its assets, or such lower percentage as the Minister may prescribe by order made under this section, invested in a fossil fuel undertaking. | ||
(3) Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2), the Agency may invest the assets of a relevant Fund in a fossil fuel undertaking or in a collective investment undertaking the assets of which are invested or will be invested in a fossil fuel undertaking, where the Agency has satisfied itself on reasonable grounds that the investment is intended to be consistent with— | ||
(a) the achievement of the national climate objective, | ||
(b) the implementation of the State’s climate change obligations, and | ||
(c) the policy of the Government, as may be communicated to the Agency from time to time by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, in relation to climate change and climate change objectives. | ||
(4) Where the Agency makes an investment which, but for subsection (3), it would be prohibited from making, it shall when publishing the fact of the investment and the name of the fossil fuel undertaking or collective investment undertaking concerned, publish the fact that the investment is made under subsection (3). | ||
(5) Every order made under subsection (2) shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House within the next 21 days on which that House has sat after the order is laid before it, the order shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done under the order. | ||
(6) In this section— | ||
“fellow subsidiary undertakings”, “higher holding undertaking”, “holding undertaking”, “subsidiary undertaking” and “undertaking” have the same meanings, respectively, as they have in Part 6 of the Companies Act 2014 ; | ||
“fossil fuel” means coal, oil, natural gas, peat or any derivative thereof intended for use in the production of energy by combustion; | ||
“fossil fuel undertaking” means an undertaking which is— | ||
(a) engaged, for the time being, in the exploration for or extraction or refinement of a fossil fuel where such activity accounts for 20 per cent or more of the turnover of that undertaking, as derived from its most recently published audited financial statements, | ||
(b) a holding undertaking or, as the case may be, a higher holding undertaking of an undertaking of the kind referred to in paragraph (a), or | ||
(c) a holding undertaking or, as the case may be, a higher holding undertaking of undertakings engaged, for the time being, in the exploration for or extraction or refinement of a fossil fuel, where the aggregate turnover of such undertakings accounts for 20 per cent or more of the turnover of the group on a consolidated basis, as derived from its most recently published audited financial statements; | ||
“group” means an undertaking together with any holding undertaking, higher holding undertaking, subsidiary undertaking and fellow subsidiary undertakings that such undertaking may have; | ||
“indirect investment” means an investment of the assets of a relevant Fund in an investment product or in a collective investment undertaking but does not include financial derivative instruments, exchange traded funds or hedge funds; | ||
“national climate objective” has the same meaning as it has in the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 ; | ||
“State’s climate change obligations” means the existing or future obligations of the State referred to in paragraphs (a) and (b) (insofar as the obligations of the State referred to in paragraph (b) relate to climate change) of section 2 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act 2015 ; | ||
“turnover” in relation to an undertaking or a group of undertakings means the amount of revenue derived from the provision of goods and services falling within the ordinary activities of the undertaking or group of undertakings, after deduction of— | ||
(a) trade discounts, | ||
(b) value-added tax, and | ||
(c) any other taxes based on the amounts so derived. |