Norway’s $890 billion government-pension fund, considered the largest sovereign-wealth fund in the world, will sell off many of its investments related to coal, making it the biggest institution to join a growing international movement to abandon at least some fossil-fuel stocks.
Parliament voted Friday to order the fund to shift its holdings out of billions of dollars of stock in companies whose businesses rely at least 30 percent on coal.
The decision — which could seem paradoxical, given that Norway is a major producer of oil and gas — is certain to add momentum to a push to divest fossil-fuel stocks that emerged three years ago on college campuses.
The Church of England said last month that it would drop companies involved with coal or oil sands from its $14 billion investment fund, and the French insurer AXA said it would cut some $560 million in coal-related investments from its portfolio. Members of the Rockefeller family, whose fortune derives from Standard Oil, also pledged last year to remove fossil-fuel investments, beginning with coal, from their philanthropic Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
There is no question that the decision by various funds to sell fossil-fuel stocks has little or no impact on the vast market capitalization of most companies. For that reason, the divestment movement has long been dismissed by many institutions as symbolic.
But divestment decisions from funds like Norway’s are important because they require, as a first step, discussions that once seemed taboo, said Bob Massie, a longtime climate activist.
Many institutions have pushed back against the divestment movement. Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard, has said the university can address climate change through research, education and its own practices, and that dropping fossil-fuel investments is not “warranted or wise.”
Source:http://www.seattletimes.com/
Parliament voted Friday to order the fund to shift its holdings out of billions of dollars of stock in companies whose businesses rely at least 30 percent on coal.
The decision — which could seem paradoxical, given that Norway is a major producer of oil and gas — is certain to add momentum to a push to divest fossil-fuel stocks that emerged three years ago on college campuses.
The Church of England said last month that it would drop companies involved with coal or oil sands from its $14 billion investment fund, and the French insurer AXA said it would cut some $560 million in coal-related investments from its portfolio. Members of the Rockefeller family, whose fortune derives from Standard Oil, also pledged last year to remove fossil-fuel investments, beginning with coal, from their philanthropic Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
There is no question that the decision by various funds to sell fossil-fuel stocks has little or no impact on the vast market capitalization of most companies. For that reason, the divestment movement has long been dismissed by many institutions as symbolic.
But divestment decisions from funds like Norway’s are important because they require, as a first step, discussions that once seemed taboo, said Bob Massie, a longtime climate activist.
Many institutions have pushed back against the divestment movement. Drew Gilpin Faust, president of Harvard, has said the university can address climate change through research, education and its own practices, and that dropping fossil-fuel investments is not “warranted or wise.”
Source:http://www.seattletimes.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment