OSLO: Many Norwegian companies lag high standards for reporting their impact on the environment that the Nordic nation’s $1 trillion wealth fund is championing abroad in 2018.
The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, which is barred by the Norwegian government from investing at home, wants the 9,100 companies in which it holds stakes to submit data on issues such as water use and climate effects to London-based non-profit group CDP, formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project.
“If Norwegian companies want to take a leadership role on climate change they should be engaging with their suppliers on these issues,” said Sonya Bhonsle, head of supply chain at CDP.
Norway’s fund, built from the nation’s oil and gas revenues, says global warming is stoking downpours, droughts and rising sea levels that threaten long-term earnings. It says investors need harmonized data to compare risks.
Its policies, such as restricting investments in coal companies, have huge influence for companies and investors because it owns on average 1.4 percent of all listed shares worldwide.
Yngve Slyngstad, the fund’s CEO, said it encouraged companies abroad to “strengthen their reporting in general, directly to the investors, but also indirectly through the CDP.” Few companies are doing enough on climate change, he said.
Statoil spokesman Erik Haaland said the company did not take part in the CDP fresh water survey because most of the firm’s operations are offshore, using abundant sea water. Statoil has water-intensive shale oil and gas in the United States.
“Also, the questionnaire is quite extensive, and since the issue is less material for our operations we made the decision to not take part,” he said.
Asked if the government had a double standard, Norway’s deputy Finance Minister Geir Olsen wrote in an email that the ministry “welcomes efforts to standardize climate reporting according to internationally agreed principles.”
The finance ministry oversees the sovereign wealth fund.
Martin Skancke, a consultant on the design of sovereign wealth funds, said “obviously there is a reasonable expectation that when the government promotes these standards through the fund in foreign markets that it also promotes them internally.”
He said that, from his own experience on boards of Norwegian companies, the center-right government does urge companies to disclose environmental data.
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