Dear Norway:
please DIVEST!

It’s time for the largest national fund in the world to stop profiting from climate destruction

Photo: © Nelly Tokmagasheva

To: Norwegian political leaders

Please divest your Global Pension Fund from fossil fuels, starting with companies mining and burning coal. Be a climate leader by reinvesting in a just transition to a 100% clean future fully powered by renewable energy.

Sign the petition:

signers. Add your name now!

BIG UPDATE:

The Norwegian parliament issued a recommendation to divest its country’s sovereign wealth fund from the coal industry — that’s a big achievement. Let’s keep the pressure.

For years, Norway has worked for a just and strong global climate deal, and has achieved impressive progress by becoming one of the few countries in the world fully powered by renewable energy. Its sovereign wealth fund, however, keeps getting richer from decades of exploiting vast oil and gas reserves.

What’s more: the fund is heavily invested in fossil fuels, including more than US$10bn in companies that mine and burn coal – one of the dirtiest and most polluting of fossil fuels. The coal industry not only contributes to climate change: every year, it’s responsible for 800,000 premature deaths around the world, polluting our air, rivers and communities.

Coal investments make up only 1.2% of the fund’s US$867bn investment portfolio, yet this is enough to make the fund one of the ten largest coal investors in the world.

In May and June this year, you can help us shift Norway’s dirty savings of the past into positive future impact for all. The fund’s investment policy comes under review in the Norwegian Parliament, and the country has a unique opportunity to stop profiting from the disaster its investments are causing, by divesting from fossil fuels, starting with coal.

Moving out of coal would be a small step for Norway (2 out of 3 Norwegians are in favour of it), but a big message to the international community. Join us in making that happen.

bg_norway

Pat: “My granddaughter’s next breath is more precious than Duke Energy’s profit”
Kate: “Coal isn’t cool. I can’t imagine my life without an inhaler”

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By the numbers

867,000,000,000 Current market value of the GPF, US$

5 Demanded criteria for coal divestment

8^th Largest investor in the coal industry globally

10,880,000,000 Coal investments of the fund, US$

800,000 Premature deaths per year attributed to coal burning worldwide

1.2% coal investments as a percentage of the total fund size

The fund’s investments are not just numbers on a spreadsheet.

They are mines, port terminals, power plants and other infrastructure in the coal industry. They are climate impacts that raise sea levels, super-charge hurricanes, intensify droughts and floods. They are a real and present, harmful danger to people all over the world.

Here are some pictures and messages from those frontlines:

Arianne Kassman, Papua New Guinea: "Climate Change is threatening our existence. I call on you to help us save humanity by divesting your money today"

Betty Hobbs, Australia

Jien Lee, Seoul, South Korea

The Cerrejón Community, Colombia: "The mine has brought about poverty, disease, the loss of our home and the environmental destruction. Nothing else!"

India: "They displaced us and built an ash dyke in our land"

Bargny is a fishing village. Coal plants are first going to send the people to the health center because of the pollution, and then to the social center because of poverty because hot (thermal) water from the plant has driven away the fish.

Dean McNulty, Australia: "I support divestment because it is a great way for individuals and companies to show that they know how important it is to face up to the climate challenge."

India: "They destroyed our father’s house which was an ancestral property. It is almost 5-6 years now, they promised to give us 2 houses and some agricultural land. Nothing is given so far and we lost hope now"

Mongolia: "Dear Norway, do you realise how much ecological and social damage is caused by coal mines here in Gobi? Mongolia has abundant solar and wind resources. Please divest and put the money into clean energy!"

Palawan, Philippines: "We need to send the message that there is no place for a coal-fired power plant in Palawan — not when the people of Palawan have cheaper and cleaner alternatives readily available."

Nguyen Thu Phuong, Le Tran Khanh Vy, and Ho Thi Cam Nhu, Vietnam

Tobias Fischer, Germany "No displacement of people from their homes for lignite coal! Dear Norway, please divest!"

Indonesia

Mo, Poland: "There are many struggles I am ivolved in, ecology is one of them. there are many reasons i cover my face, polluted air is one of them."

Anton Lementuev, Russia

Soma community, Turkey: "It takes decades of care and patience to have fruits from olive trees. Then they get chopped for the construction of a coal mine. We don't want to be economically dependent on coal." (c) Kerem Yucel/ CAN Europe

Antje, Germany: "Dear Norway, with its open cast lignite mine RWE is destroying one of the oldest forests in Germany. Please divest!"

Sariseki village, Turkey: "In our village, there is no single house without a family member suffering from respiratory diseases due to coal power plants. My grandson has asthma, so as the children of most of our neighbors. It's their right to live and grow up in a healthy, sustainable environment." (c) Kerem Yucel/ CAN Europe

Kurtpinari village, Turkey "We live in coal dust for the last three years, since there's a big, open-air coal storage area next to our village. We breathe coal, we eat coal, we drink coal. I don't want to be displaced because of it; I want to live on my land free of coal." (c) Kerem Yucel/ CAN Europe

Please email photos@350.org or share on social media using #DivestNorway if you want to share your story.

Tell Norway to divest from fossil fuels:

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This campaign is a collaborative effort by Framtiden i våre hender, urgewald,
Greenpeace Norge, WWF Norway, Avaaz and 350.org.