News
Publish date: February 6, 2006
News
The companies that Norway will no longer invest in are BAE Systems, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Honeywell International, Finmeccanica, Safran and United Technologies Corporation.
The Norwegian government said shares worth about $500m had been sold in the companies at the end of 2005. According to Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, the centre-right government of Kjell Magne Bondevik had taken the decision before it was voted out of office in September 2005. Halvorsen also said the current Labour administration supported its predecessor’s action, based on recommendations it had received from the fund’s Ethics Council, said the BBC.
The Norwegian government said it had based its decision on information available on the companies’ web sites as well as independent analysis. It said it had asked each of the companies concerned to clarify their position regarding nuclear weapons. One company confirmed its involvement, while the other six either did not reply or declined to discuss the subject, the news service said.
The Norwegian Finance Ministry stated, “According to the ethical guidelines for the Government Pension Fund-Global, companies that produce weapons that through normal use may violate fundamental humanitarian principles shall be excluded. Nuclear weapons are considered to be in this category of weapons,” the BBC quoted the ministry as saying.
The Finance Ministry also said that further companies could be excluded from the fund in the future, if found to be involved in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Norway is opposed to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, although it remains a member of NATO, several of whose members have nuclear weapons arsenals.
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant "mark the beginning of a new and gravely dangerous front of the war," the UN atomic agency's director general said last week.
After years of inaction, Germany is working on its Carbon Management Strategy to resolve how CCS can play a role in climate action in industry. At the end of February, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action published first key points and a proposal to amend the law Kohlenstoffdioxid Speicherungsgesetz (KSpG). Bellona Deutschland, who was actively involved in the previous stakeholder dialogue submitted a statement in the association hearing.
In the midst of a global discussion on whether natural gas should be used as a transitional fuel and whether emissions from its extraction, production, transport and use are significantly less than those from other fossil fuels, Russia has developed ambitious plans to increase its own production of liquified natural gas (LNG) in the Arctic – a region with 75% of proven gas reserves in Russia – to raise its share in the international gas trade.
In this news digest, we monitor events that impact the environment in the Russian Arctic. Our main focus lies in identifying the factors that contribute to pollution risks and climate change.