The organisation believes that the same thorough ethical principles that apply for the fund’s equity investments should be translated into its bond holdings. As it stands, the fund only excludes bond investments in countries under UN sanctions.

The proposals, which were submitted to the Norwegian ministry of finance in mid-September, are a part of the ongoing evaluation of the fund’s guidelines. Others, like the University of Oslo, want the fund to take a more active stand on climate change and develop a strategy for dealing with climate-related risk in the investment portfolio. It also believes the fund should use positive screening to allocate more into companies that are developing low-carbon technology.

The Norwegian pension fund association is also proposing that the guidelines be made more general to make it easier for other investors to apply them.

“We are now going through the material and aim to present our evaluations as part of the annual evaluation of the fund next spring,” said Martin Skancke, director-general at the asset management department at the ministry of finance. The ministry would not comment on any specific proposals.

The review of the ethical guidelines, which have been in place for 10 years, was initiated this spring in an attempt to modernise the principles and stay at the forefront of ethical investment.

Caroline Liinanki

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