Norwegian wealth fund blacklists global resources, energy giants

The Bank of Norway said the fund, worth about one trillion dollars, has divested from several major power companies, including Germany's RWE, Australia's AGL Energy and South Africa's Sasol, citing their reliance on coal.

Last year, Norway's parliament tightened up the fund's rules so as to further reduce its holdings in fossil fuels, blamed for global warming.

The central bank, which oversees the fund, also announced it had placed other energy majors such as Australia's BHP Group, Vistra Energy, Enel and Uniper under observation, which could result in their being dropped as well. In a separate statement, the central bank blacklisted seven companies for ethical reasons.

Four of them - Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil - were excluded because of their "unacceptable" greenhouse gas emissions. Brazil's Vale - which had a dam collapse at one of its mines in January 2019, killing 270 people and releasing millions of tons of toxic mining waste - and Egypt's ElSewedy, were blacklisted because they caused serious damage to the environment, it said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2020

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