Environmentalists Call Bullshit on Norway's Coal Divestment Pledge

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Months after Norway's sovereign wealth fund, the world's largest, made a splashy pledge to break free from coal investments, three environmental groups are accusing it of "pretend divestment."

One of the top ten investors in the global coal industry, Norway's estimated $850 billion fund — propped up by the country's vast oil and gas reserves — has ties to companies that produce nearly a quarter of the world's coal, and owns 1.3 percent of all companies listed globally.

The country's lofty divestment talk, framed as a commitment to responsible investing, garnered high praise from top environmental leaders. But a report released last week, Still Dirty, Still Dangerous, says Norway has instead invested more money into coal, increasing its holdings by $386 million in 2014.

Despite dropping more than 50 coal companies last year, including American companies like Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, the fund shifted money toward other heavily coal-backed investments, according to Future in Our Hands, Greenpeace Norway, and Urgewald, a German NGO.

"This shows the shortcomings of reports that focus only on divestment actions, but do not mention where funds have been re-invested," wrote Heffa Schücking, the report's lead author. "They serve to create the illusion that the Pension Fund's coal portfolio has shrunken, while resources have, in fact, only been shifted from one coal company to the next."

Related: It's been a very bad year so far for the US coal industry

The divestment movement, kicked off by 350.org's Bill McKibben, author Naomi Klein, and other high-profile green activists with a national speaking tour in 2012, seeks to apply moral pressure on institutions like universities and pension funds to withdraw their investments in fossil fuels. Divestment activists claim their campaign is akin to the anti-apartheid movement 1980s, which aimed to financially isolate the South African government.

The movement is picking up steam: cities like Seattle and Boulder, colleges including Stanford and Syracuse, and even the heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune have pledged to divest.

Following the report, a Norwegian parliamentary committee approved on Wednesday a bill requiring the fund to end investment in any company deriving 30 percent of its  revenue from coal.

"Coal is by far the biggest source of greenhouse gases, so this is a big victory for the climate," said Norwegian Labor Party member Torstein Tvedt Solberg, according to the Associated Press.

Truls Gulowsen of Greenpeace said the law could bring about a significant shift.

"We expect that billions of euros will be withdrawn from the coal industry, when this happens," said Gulowsen, according to the AP. "This is a huge win for the divestment movement and a real sign of hope that investment patterns can be changed."

But, Gulowsen told VICE News, the legislation does not cover oil and gas investments, nor mining companies such as Glencore, BHP Billiton, or Anglo American, which each mine over 100 million tons of coal annually. He added that Norway is seeking to expand oil and gas development in the Barents Sea.

The full parliament is expected to approve the law on June 5.

Related: Fossil fuel divestment campaign scores two new victories