Norway's Oil Fund Bars CEZ, Kepco, PGE

Norway’s central bank has excluded ten more companies from the government’s more than $900bn Oil Fund, because they have not reduced their coal use in line with the bank’s investment criteria. The Fund is a nest-egg for when Norway's revenues from oil and gas taper out post-2050, but it also takes a position to limit global warming.

The ten excluded are generators South Korean state Kepco, Czech CEZ and Poland’s PGE, Brazil’s Eneva (which is part owned by Germany’s Uniper), Malaysia’s Malakoff, Hong Kong Electric Investments, plus two other Chinese (Huadian and SDIC) and two US companies (Great River and Otter Tail).

It is the third such round of exclusions, bringing the list so far excluded to 69 companies. At the same time, two US generators were put on watch: NorthWestern and Portland General, taking the number under watch on the coal criterion to 13.

The coal criterion states that power companies and mining companies which base 30% or more of their activities on coal, and/or derive 30% of their revenues from coal, may be excluded from the Fund.

Mark Smedley