The world’s largest wealth fund from Norway announced last March 8 that they will discontinue investments in oil and gas firms due to environmental concerns and diversifying assets.
The $1 trillion worth of assets in the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) has roughly $8-B investment in 134 international fossil fuel companies. The major reason why the wealth fund will be withdrawing their funds from these companies is to ‘diversify their assets’ and not be dependent on oil and gas alone.’
However, GPFG did say that they will still keep some of their oil and gas investments from companies that have added renewable energy sources to its divisions.
The sovereign fund will only phase out its investment in companies like Chesapeake Energy Corp. and China’s CNOOC.
Environmental concerns
Due to global warming, many countries have made efforts to help save the environment. What the GPFG is doing is part of its initiative to shift away from destroying fossil fuels that greatly affect nature and add to the severe rise in the earth’s temperature. It is known that the wealth fund has also dumped investments in coal companies in 2015.
Other countries that have shifted away from oil and gas investments include Ireland, which withdrew $8.5-B due to the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill in January 2015. Ireland is the very first country to end investments in fossil fuels.
Moreover, the World Bank also announced in 2017 that it will also end support to the oil and gas industry to protect the planet from the growing threat posed by climate change. By the end of 2019, the bank will no longer support companies participating in the fossil fuels industry.
The UK also imposed Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, stating that companies should disclose financial reports related to global warming investments.
