The largest wealth fund in the world, with assets worth $1.2 trillion, announced on Tuesday that it would decarbonize its holdings by pressuring companies to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 in accordance with the Paris Agreement.
The Norway sovereign wealth fund invests petroleum earnings from the largest oil and gas producer in Western Europe in foreign stocks, bonds, real estate, and renewable energy initiatives for future generations.
The proposal, issued by the Norwegian government in April, stated that the fund should encourage the 9,300 businesses it invests in to achieve zero emissions by 2050.
For every man, woman, and kid in Norway, the fund’s size is equivalent to $219,000, and it currently owns an average of 1.3% of all publicly traded international companies.
More than ten years ago, the fund released its initial expectations for how businesses should handle climate change.
It monitors climate-related risks, which are those that relate to how climate change can affect the investments the fund makes as well as potential benefits for certain businesses that effectively adapt to it.
