The Revised National Budget 2004 includes
new ethical
guidelines proposed by the Government for the management of the
Government Petroleum Fund. Management of the Fund is intended to
meet two ethical obligations: a) the obligation to ensure that
future generations receive a fair share of the oil wealth and b)
the obligation to respect the fundamental rights of those who are
affected by the activities of companies in which the Fund
invests.
The ethical guidelines comprise
three elements:
- Exercise of ownership rights to promote long-term
financial return. Long-term return will generally benefit from a
portfolio consisting of companies that demonstrate respect for
universally accepted norms of ethical behaviour.
- Negative screening to exclude companies that produce
chemical and biological weapons, anti-personnel mines, weapons with
non-detectable fragments, incendiary weapons, blinding laser
weapons, nuclear weapons and cluster bombs. These are weapons whose
normal use violates fundamental humanitarian principles.
- Exclusion of companies in which there is deemed to exist
an unacceptable risk of contributing to violations of fundamental
humanitarian principles, gross violations of human rights, gross
corruption or severe environmental degradation.
The manager of the Fund, Norges
Bank, will be responsible for the implementation of the corporate
governance policy, while the Ministry of Finance will be
responsible for decisions regarding ethical constraints on the
Fund’s investment universe.
The Ministry of Finance will
establish an external council to advise the Ministry on negative
screening and exclusion under the ethical guidelines.
In 2001 a minor part of the
Petroleum Fund was invested in accordance with environmental
guidelines as a pilot project. Since ethical guidelines are now
being issued for the entire Petroleum Fund, the Government has
decided to discontinue the pilot project.
The guidelines are due to be
implemented in the second half of 2004.
Read more about ethical guidelines
in chapter 4.2 St. meld. nr. 2 (2003-2004).