OSLO, May 5 (Reuters) – Norway’s $2.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest, is pulling back from active engagement on climate change at the companies it is invested in despite its stated ambitions to address it, a report by an environmental NGO said on Tuesday.
Since 2022 the fund’s aim is for all the companies it is invested in to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, in line with the Paris Agreement. Currently that is about 7,200 companies worldwide.
To do that, Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), the fund’s operator, sets expectations for company boards specifically on climate change, votes at annual general meetings on the issue and can divest if companies fail to respond.
But according to a report by green group Framtiden i Vaare Hender (Future in our Hands), shared with Reuters ahead of its publication on Tuesday, the fund is not meeting its climate change ambitions.
The report analysed the fund’s voting record last year on 23 priority votes at 12 upstream oil and gas developers, such as BP, Shell, Petrobras, Chevron and ExxonMobil, which are expanding oil and gas production.
The group said NBIM signalled disapproval of management in only three instances by voting against the re-election of directors at Petrobras, ExxonMobil and Chevron.
“NBIM’s 2025 voting record shows a concerning lack of engagement by the world’s largest single asset owner on a key financial risk: climate risk,” said Lucy Brooks, the group’s sustainable finance advisor.
“Their latest voting demonstrates that a pullback from active engagement risks becoming permanent.”
The fund said it continued to expect companies in its portfolio to align their activities with a net-zero pathway and to disclose credible, time-bound transition plans.
“At the heart of our efforts is engagement to support and challenge our portfolio companies to transition their business models to net zero emissions by 2050. That work is ongoing,” it said in a statement to Reuters.
“Voting is one of several tools we may use,” it added. “We engage directly and extensively with companies in our portfolio – including the largest emitters – through bilateral dialogue on the basis of our climate expectations.”
It has previously said it was maintaining the pressure on companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050 “because climate risk is financial risk”.
BP IN FOCUS
Also this year, according to Brooks, the fund’s actions at the BP AGM in April demonstrated a lack of active management on climate-related financial risks.
“On three separate occasions, NBIM chose to protect the BP board’s position rather than join the majority or large minority of investors demanding better disclosure and oversight of their fossil fuel strategy,” she said.
The fund said at the time it would not support “a shareholder proposal that appears to be overly prescriptive in regard to the company’s strategy and/or operations, or that sets unrealistic timeframes, targets or methods for implementation.”
This week it added that “we have been explicit in stating that boards and management teams have responsibility for strategy and operational decisions, inclusive of capital allocation decisions”.
(Reporting by Gwladys Fouche in Oslo; Editing by Toby Chopra)
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