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Norwegian sovereign wealth fund to reduce coal investments

Xinhua, May 28, 2015 Adjust font size:

Norway's parliament on Wednesday reached an agreement that the country's sovereign wealth fund should sell shares in all companies in its portfolio which generate more than 30 percent of their revenues from coal.

The agreement was accepted by all parties at a meeting of the Norwegian parliament's finance committee and will be formally adopted by the legislature on June 5, according to English-language digital news publisher The Local.

"This is a great victory for the climate," said Torstein Svedt Solberg from Norway's Labor Party, who acted as the rapporteur for the negotiations. "Coal is in class of its own and is the source responsible for the largest emissions of greenhouse gases."

He said that the deal had been reached after long and detailed discussions, meaning there was little chance of serious disagreements between the parties as the government draws up the new guidelines for Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), which manages the fund.

The fund, formally known as the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) and ranked as the world's biggest sovereign wealth fund, has already been reducing its holdings of pure-play coal mining companies, revealing at the start of the month that it had cut its investment in the sector by two fifths since the start of the year. Endit