Oil-rich Norway to set out new CO2 mandate for its €1.2trn sovereign wealth fund

Norway’s Labour Party, which this month won elections that focused on the country’s fossil-fuel dependence, has made clear it wants to embrace more aggressive environmental policies.

The world’s biggest owner of publicly traded stocks, Norway’s sovereign-wealth fund, is about to get the political go-ahead to insist that all companies in its portfolio have clear targets for cutting CO2 emissions.

Norway’s Labour Party, which this month won elections that focused on the country’s fossil-fuel dependence, has made clear it wants to embrace more aggressive environmental policies. 

That includes providing a more stringent framework. The €1.2tn fund should now commit to net-zero carbon-dioxide emissions by 2050, Espen Barth Eide, Labour’s climate spokesman, said. 

It’s a goal that was enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. 

Norway’s reluctance until now to sign up its wealth fund, which owns about 1.5% of the world’s stocks, has drawn condemnation. 

But as scientists warn that temperatures are rising at a much more dangerous pace than previously feared, the mood — even in oil-dependent states like Norway — is changing.

“We want the fund to use active ownership strategies to achieve net-zero across the companies in the portfolio,” Mr Eide said. 

For now, Norway’s wealth fund still holds stakes in some of the planet’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitters, including ExxonMobil and Chevron. 

• Reuters