Norway's Vast Sovereign Wealth Funds Dumps Shares Of Oz Utilities Over Coal
Norway’s gigantic sovereign wealth fund has dumped its stake in the Australian energy company AGL, which owns coal-fired power stations including the carbon-intensive Liddell plant in New South Wales, after tightening up its rules on fossil fuels.
Norges Bank, which manages the US$1.1tn Government Pension Fund Global, has also put Australian mining giant BHP on an “observation list”, placing it at risk of divestment in the future. The fund, which is so big it owns an estimated 1.5% of shares listed on the global stock exchange, invests the spoils of Norway’s own North Sea oil bonanza.
However, over the past few years it has adopted progressively stricter rules about investing in fossil fuels. Its latest rules, brought into force in December, allow it to exclude or put on observation companies that get 30% or more of their income from thermal coal, base 30% or more of their operations on thermal coal, produce more than 20m tons of thermal coal a year or produce power of more than 10,000MW from thermal coal.
It is believed AGL has been disqualified because of its coal mine at Loy Yang in Victoria. The company had hoped to close its elderly Liddell coal-fired plant in 2022 but after a political bunfight has pushed the date into the following year. Glencore, which has assets in Australia and produces more than 130m tons of coal a year, has also been struck from the fund’s list of permitted investments. BHP also holds extensive thermal coal assets, although it has recently been moving towards selling them.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/14/norways-giant-oil-fund-ditches-stake-in-australias-agl-over-fossil-fuel-concerns
