FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 8, 2019

CONTACT:
Alex Doukas, alex [at] priceofoil.org
David Turnbull, david [at] priceofoil.org

Norway set to divest $1 trillion wealth fund from oil and gas exploration companies

Oil Change International response

Today, Norway announced its Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), managing a combined USD 1 trillion in assets, will, pending expected parliamentary approval, divest from roughly 150 companies engaged in oil and gas exploration and production.

In response, Alex Doukas, Stop Funding Fossils Program Director at Oil Change International, released the following statement:

“This planned move by Norway’s government is a clear signal of where the global financial community is headed: directly away from fossil fuels. The companies listed for exclusion are focused exclusively on drilling more oil and gas out of the ground when climate safety requires the exact opposite – a rapid and just managed decline of all fossil fuel production. Ultimately, all oil and gas companies continuing to expand production should be shunned by the global financial community as bad actors and risky investments.”

“We applaud the Norwegian government for this plan but also encourage them to truly go all-in on climate responsibility by divesting from all fossil fuel companies, including integrated major oil and gas companies. We need to stop funding the fossil fuels that are causing the climate crisis, and this move by the Norway Government Pension Fund Global is an important – if limited – step in that direction.”

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Notes for Editors:

  • The list of companies subject to the exclusion is here. Notably, major integrated oil and gas companies are not included in today’s announcement.
  • Norway’s finance minister justified not yet divesting from integrated oil majors due to the expectation that they may shift their operations towards cleaner sectors. However, a November 2018 report by CDP showed that oil majors invested only 1.3 percent of their 2018 capital expenditure into “low-carbon” investments.
  • Previous analysis by Oil Change International has shown that the expansion of fossil fuel production through exploration or development of new fossil fuel reserves is incompatible with meeting the Paris Agreement climate goals.