Norway wealth fund urged to ease nuclear arms ban after Gaza investment row

Review prompted by Gaza action calls for Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to lift ethical risk limitations on its investments.

Pro-Palestinian and climate change activists block the entrances of the Norwegian Central Bank, which houses the offices of the sovereign wealth fund, in Oslo, Norway [File: Gwladys Fouche/Reuters]

A government-appointed committee has called for Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to lift limitations on its investments based on ethical risks, including those regarding nuclear weapons and Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

In a report released on Thursday, the committee said the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund, which controls assets totalling nearly $2.3 trillion, should be allowed to invest in companies that produce nuclear weapons. With reference to Gaza, it also called for the fund to refrain from involvement in “diplomatic” issues.

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Led by former Central Bank Governor Svein Gjedrem, the committee recommended easing the fund’s investment conditions as part of a broader overhaul that would give its manager, the Central Bank, greater discretion over how it addresses ethical risks.

The review was prompted in part by controversy over the fund’s disinvestment last year from United States construction giant Caterpillar. The fund said the move was prompted by Caterpillar’s purported involvement in rights violations perpetrated by Israel amid its genocidal war on Gaza and in the occupied West Bank. Washington has since pressured Oslo over the move.

“Parts of the rationale for the appointment of the Committee was the Fund’s management related to the war in Gaza,” the committee commissioned by the government said. In the report, it argued that decisions regarding “another state’s conduct” should not be made by the fund but “reserved for the ordinary diplomatic channels of the Norwegian authorities”.

The unanimous recommendations of the committee in the report, which was submitted to the Ministry of Finance, also called for a review of the fund’s exclusion of investment in companies involved in the production of nuclear weapons.

Citing Norway’s reliance on NATO’s nuclear deterrent and a worsening security environment, the report suggested that investments in companies based in the US, United Kingdom and France that are involved in the production of nuclear weapons should be allowed.

The proposals also extended to reshaping the role of the fund’s independent ethics watchdog, allowing a number of assessments of potential investments to remain confidential.

The report has already provoked a backlash in Norway, with opposition politicians slamming the potential changes. Meanwhile, analysts suggested that weakening ethics considerations could have a wide impact.

“If the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund – often considered a global gold standard – changes its posture towards nuclear weapons, it will open Pandora’s box for many global investors to follow suit,” Lawrence Loh, director of the Centre for Governance and Sustainability at the National University of Singapore Business School, told Al Jazeera.

The committee framed the proposed change as an obligation to protect Norway’s national security, citing the country’s dependence on its allies’ nuclear umbrella.

“The global security situation has changed. Norway is building up its defence capabilities, and the protection provided by NATO’s nuclear umbrella has become increasingly important. The companies that would be reincluded produce weapons that Norway needs for its own defence”, the report argued.

Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister, told Al Jazeera the report was “an encouraging initiative in a world that has become alarmingly complacent about the risks of nuclear war, with every major nuclear arms control agreement dead, dying or on life support, and the longstanding taboo against threat or use eroding”.

Amid US President Donald Trump’s shake-up of NATO, European countries are increasingly looking to join France’s nuclear deterrent umbrella .

Trump said on Thursday that Washington is holding talks with Russia and China aimed at denuclearising the countries with the biggest stockpiles of nuclear weapons.

However, Loh warned that shifting the Norwegian fund’s investment conditions could encourage investment by others in nuclear companies “in scenarios different from the Norwegians’ condition of the invested companies being based in allied, nuclear-armed NATO countries”.

加沙行动引发的审查呼吁挪威主权财富基金取消对其投资的道德风险限制。

在挪威奥斯陆，亲巴勒斯坦人士和气候变化活动人士封锁了挪威中央银行的入口，该银行内设有主权财富基金的办公室。[图片：Gwladys Fouche/路透社]

一个政府任命的委员会呼吁挪威主权财富基金取消基于道德风险的投资限制，包括与核武器和以色列对加沙的种族灭绝战争相关的风险。

该委员会周四发布的一份报告称，全球最大的主权财富基金——管理着近2.3万亿美元的资产——应该被允许投资生产核武器的公司。报告还就加沙问题呼吁该基金避免介入“外交”事务。

报告显示，自2023年以来，以色列已拘留超过2000名巴勒斯坦儿童（共3项，此为第1项）。

欧盟三个成员国中的第二个将提高北极战略地位，因为北极已成为重要的地缘政治前沿。

芬兰在俄罗斯和美国局势不明朗的情况下，寻求法国的核保护（共3个选项，此为第3个）。

该委员会由前中央银行行长斯韦恩·杰德雷姆领导，建议放宽该基金的投资条件，作为一项更广泛的改革的一部分，该改革将赋予其管理者——中央银行——更大的自主权，使其能够应对道德风险。

此次审查的部分原因是该基金去年撤出对美国建筑巨头卡特彼勒公司的投资引发的争议。该基金表示，此举是由于卡特彼勒涉嫌参与以色列在加沙和被占领的西岸地区发动的种族灭绝战争中侵犯人权的行为。此后，华盛顿就此举向奥斯陆施压。

政府委托成立的委员会表示，“设立该委员会的部分理由是基金在加沙战争中的管理问题”。该委员会在报告中指出，基金不应就“他国行为”做出决定，而应“保留给挪威当局通过常规外交渠道处理”。

该委员会在提交给财政部的报告中一致建议，还要求审查该基金将投资于参与核武器生产的公司排除在外的做法。

报告指出挪威依赖北约的核威慑力量，且安全环境日益恶化，因此建议允许对总部位于美国、英国和法国、从事核武器生产的公司进行投资。

这些提议还包括重塑该基金独立道德监督机构的角色，允许对潜在投资进行多项评估并保持保密。

这份报告已经在挪威引发强烈反弹，反对派政客猛烈抨击了其中可能存在的变革。与此同时，分析人士指出，削弱道德考量可能会产生广泛的影响。

“如果挪威主权财富基金——通常被视为全球黄金标准——改变其对核武器的立场，这将打开潘多拉魔盒，许多全球投资者会效仿，”新加坡国立大学商学院治理与可持续发展中心主任罗文森告诉半岛电视台。

委员会将这项拟议的变更视为保护挪威国家安全的义务，并援引了挪威对其盟友核保护伞的依赖性。

报告指出：“全球安全形势已经发生变化。挪威正在加强自身防御能力，北约核保护伞提供的保护变得越来越重要。那些将被重新纳入北约体系的公司生产的武器正是挪威自身防御所需要的。”

澳大利亚前外交部长加雷思·埃文斯告诉半岛电视台，这份报告“在一个对核战争风险变得令人担忧地自满的世界里，是一项令人鼓舞的举措。每一项主要的核军控协议都已失效、濒临失效或岌岌可危，而长期以来禁止威胁或使用核武器的禁忌也在逐渐瓦解”。

在美国总统唐纳德·特朗普对北约进行重组之际，欧洲国家越来越希望加入法国的核威慑保护伞。

特朗普周四表示，华盛顿正在与俄罗斯和中国举行会谈，旨在使拥有最大核武器库的国家实现无核化。

然而，洛赫警告说，改变挪威基金的投资条件可能会鼓励其他人投资核能公司，“而挪威人所要求的投资条件是，被投资的公司必须位于拥有核武器的北约盟国”。