Norway's Sovereign Wealth Fund Considers Fossil Fuel Divestment

[Benton D Struckcheon]

Kind of ironic, since that fund exists because of Norway's oil. Norway, by the way, is a textbook case in how to avoid the "Dutch disease", or "resource curse". But that's a story for another time.

This story here: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/55b8bce2-b9b8-11e3-957a-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl

As this is behind a paywall, and they don't take kindly to being cut & pasted, a summary:

- Since coal faces an uncertain future with strict new pollution regulations here and in the EU, and the price has been steadily declining as a result, the Norwegians are considering divesting entirely from coal companies.
- Oil companies are a more interesting case: it seems there's two trends bearing down on them at the same time:

1. Most new finds are very expensive to develop and therefore don't offer a lot of profit.
2. Peak oil demand is now seen to be a lot sooner than anyone thought, between changing driving habits in the developed world, where young people are driving less, and the possibility that subsidized fuel in emerging economies may be scaled back because of their sheer expense, which would dent oil demand there.

For oil, it seems the Norwegians will be wanting the companies to develop only fields that offer a better return.

Either way, it looks like another nail in the coffin being slowly but surely constructed for the various fossil fuels.

[bloomington-lib]

1. I was under the impression peak oil came and went, and we're on the down slope now.

Makes sense to invest in what's on the upswing (solar, wind, etc). I don't understand why more societies aren't doing this. Seems like you could still make a boat load of money, and doing it without roaming the world overthrowing countries to dig in the ground.