World’s biggest investment fund warns directors to tackle climate crisis or face sack

Posted on February 3, 2023 by Admin

Norway’s sovereign wealth titan threatens to vote against boards on firms it holds investments with over lax climate and social targets

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s single largest investor, has warned company directors it will vote against their re-election to the board if they don’t up their game on tackling the climate crisis, human rights abuses and boardroom diversity.

Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief governance and compliance officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages more than 13tn Norwegian kroner (£1tn) on behalf of the Norwegian people, said the fund was preparing to vote against the re-election of at least 80 company boards for failing to set or hit environmental or social targets.

The foreign royals and billionaire tax exiles collecting UK’s furlough millions

Posted on March 19, 2021 by Admin

Read the list of super-rich claimants, from Saudi princes to Dubai monarchs, tax exiles to the UK’s richest

UK furlough scheme pays out millions to foreign states and tax exiles

Glympton Park is a sprawling, 2,000-acre estate featuring an 18th-century stately home, nestled in the verdant Oxfordshire countryside near Woodstock.

It was bought for £8m in 1992, by Prince Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, the senior Saudi royal whose past roles include ambassador to the US. He is said to have spent £42m on renovations, including a pheasant shoot and bullet-proof glass on the driveway to thwart would-be assassins.

Norwegian wealth fund blacklists G4S shares over human rights concerns

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Admin

Sovereign wealth fund cites risk of company contributing to ill-treatment of migrant labour in Qatar and UAE

Norway’s sovereign wealth fund has banned all holdings of shares in G4S because of the risk of human rights violations against the British security company’s workforce in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Norway’s Council of Ethics, which monitors investments in the country’s £860bn Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), said there was an “unacceptable risk of the company contributing to systematic human rights violations”. Up to 30,000 staff could be affected.

‘Historic breakthrough’: Norway’s giant oil fund dives into renewables

Posted on April 5, 2019 by Admin

Experts say even nations that got rich on fossil fuels are seeing the future is green

Norway’s $1tn oil fund, the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, is to plunge billions of dollars into wind and solar power projects. The decision follows Saudi Arabia’s oil fund selling off its last oil and gas assets.

Other national funds built up from oil profits are also thought to be ramping up their investments in renewables. The moves show that countries that got rich on fossil fuels are diversifying their investments and seeking future profits in the clean energy needed to combat climate change. Analysts say the investments are likely to power faster growth of green energy.