Norway’s wealth fund falls behind climate targets

Norway’s $1.6 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, is under scrutiny for its failure to meet its climate goals, according to a Monday report by the Norwegian NGO “Framtiden i vaare hender” (the Future in Our Hands), cited by Reuters.

The fund, which is fueled by the country’s oil and gas revenues, has set a goal for its global investments in 9,000 companies to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in accordance with the Paris Agreement.

However, the report reveals that the fund’s management, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), has fallen short of these ambitions. Despite setting climate change expectations for corporate boards and voting on this issue at annual general meetings, NBIM has been found to support strategies that the NGO labels as “climate harmful.”.

The report, which analysed the fund’s voting record on 16 climate resolutions at nine major oil companies, including BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Chevron, and ExxonMobil, found that the fund supported only seven of these resolutions. In the remaining nine cases, the fund backed strategies that were deemed detrimental to the climate.

The report also highlighted that NBIM voted against all climate resolutions at the annual general meetings of four oil majors: BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, and Marathon. These companies have been identified by CA100+, an investor-led initiative, as falling short in their efforts to tackle climate change.

The report concludes that NBIM’s failure to support climate resolutions in line with internationally agreed-upon goals undermines its role as a steward of sustainable finance. This raises serious questions about the fund’s commitment to its climate ambitions and its role in sustainable investing.