Norwegian carbon money goes green, COP 15

Release Date: 2009-08-14

The huge fund administering profits from Norway’s oil and gas exploitation will give high priority to environmental concerns in its investments.

The 380 billion US dollar fund commonly known as “the oil fund” that manages the wealth from Norway’s oil and gas, announces it will seek to encourage green behavior among the companies it invests in.

“Our primary goal will always be to use our active ownership to improve the fund’s financial performance in the long term (…) and that is well aligned with an environmental focus,” Anne Kvam, Head of Corporate Governance at the Government Pension Fund – the fund’s official name – tells Reuters.

She says “continued poor performance may catch the eye of the fund’s ethics council, which has blacklisted firms on environmental grounds.”

Owning 1.3 percent of all listed European stocks, the fund is the biggest owner of European stocks. It is also the world’s second-largest sovereign wealth fund after that of the United Arab Emirates.

Type:	NORMAL
Company:	COP 15
Country:	Denmark
Url:	http://en.cop15.dk/news/view+news?newsid=1874