NORWAY’S sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest with assets of more than $2.2 trillion, may once again be allowed to invest in firms that make nuclear weapons under a proposal made Thursday.
Under its current ethical guidelines, the fund excludes 14 companies because they develop or make nuclear weapons or their components, including industry giants Airbus, BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Safran.
The Norwegian government ordered a review of the guidelines following criticism over its investments in groups accused of playing a role in the war in Gaza.
A commission established for that purpose, chaired by former central bank governor Svein Gjedrem, unveiled its recommendations on Thursday.
The fund could invest only in nuclear arms makers “based in a nuclear-weapon state as defined in the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and allied with Norway”, the report said.
“This means that several British, French and American arms manufacturers will be brought back into the fund,” Gjedrem said as he presented the 434-page document.
Other ethical exclusion criteria — such as the manufacture of biological and chemical arms, landmines and cluster bombs, as well as coal extraction and the production of tobacco or cannabis — would remain unchanged, the commission said. — AFP
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