Gee, just when The Most Notable Loser is touting a return to coal energy.[Norway’s] $1 trillion sovereign wealth fund said Thursday that it’s considering unloading its shares of Exxon Mobil Corp., Royal Dutch Shell Plc and other oil giants to diversify its holdings and guard against drops in crude prices.
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Norway’s fund is the world’s largest equity investor, controlling about 1.5 percent of global stocks. If it follows through on its proposal, it would be the first to abandon the sector altogether.
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Norway’s Finance Ministry, which oversees the fund, said it will study the proposal and will take at least a year to decide what to do. The fund has already sold off most of its coal stocks.
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The Rockefeller Family Fund announced in 2016 that it sold its stake in Exxon and would dump all other fossil-fuel investments. The California State Teachers’ Retirement System board voted to divest from U.S. coal companies. AXA SA, the French insurance giant, said it would sell 500 million euros ($589 million) in coal holdings. Norway’s fund dwarfs them all.
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“We are taking about years rather than months or quarters,” [Per Magnus Nysveen, senior partner and head of analysis at the Oslo-based consulting company Rystad Energy] said. “This has nothing to do with the environment. It is purely a financial debate.” That’s true, Lubber said. But the debate, [Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres, a non-profit that advocates for sustainable investing] said, underscores that climate change has made fossil fuels increasingly risky investments -- even in the eyes of a petroleum giant like Norway.
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The argument is simple: climate change has exponentially increased the risk of backing coal, oil and gas, so investors should put their money elsewhere for the sake of both the planet and their own fortunes.
Bloomberg
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