Norway Sovereign Wealth Fund to Divest from Coal

The New York Times published an opinion piece of Norway’s decision to order its $890 billion sovereign wealth fund to divest from coal. The piece noted that Norway is still Europe’s biggest producer of other fossil fuels.

As quoted in the publication:

The move is a major boost to the three-year-old campaign to persuade large investors to divest their fossil fuel stocks. And it could add to the momentum toward concrete action at the climate-change summit conference to be held in Paris in December.

That much is good. There is, however, a problem. Norway is also Europe’s biggest producer of other fossil fuels, and the money that the country is pulling out of coal came from more than four decades of pumping oil and gas out of the North Sea. Coal may be a worse offender on the climate change front, and the Norwegian legislators may truly have the planet’s best interests at heart, but it is hard to avoid the perception of hypocrisy in Norway’s selective combat against carbon emitters.

Click here to read the full piece from the New York Times.