OSLO, April 15 (Reuters) - Norway's oil fund, the world'sbiggest sovereign wealth fund, said on Wednesday it would back aproposal from shareholders of BP and Royal Dutch Shell for further information from the companies on risks andopportunities associated with climate change.
The $885 billion Fund, which invests revenues from Norway'soffshore oil and gas production, disclosed its voting intentionsfor the first time ahead of the companies' shareholders meeting,in line with its previously announced strategy to increasetransparency.
"As a long-term investor, we believe that the identificationof future scenarios for climate regulation, carbon pricing, andenvironmental conditions is a useful tool to support strategicdecision-making and we thereby support these resolutions," said Petter Johnsen, the Fund's chief investment officer equitystrategies.
The information on climate change is proposed to be includedas a part of the companies' annual reporting from 2016.
The Church of England said in December it would fileshareholder resolutions on climate change at BP and Shell, thecompanies with biggest carbon footprints of all the companieslisted on the London Stock Exchange.
Norway's oil fund, which has become one of the biggestinvestors in the world and owns over 1 percent of global shareswith holdings in more than 9,000 companies, said it will publishvoting intentions for a selected number of firms and for"certain fundamental issues".
Norway planned to drop investments in companies emittingunacceptable amounts of greenhouse gases in a sharpening ofenvironmental rules for its sovereign wealth fund, the FinanceMinistry said on April 10.
Last year, the fund dropped investments in about 50 coalmining companies, including 14 mining coal for electricitygeneration and 11 in Indonesia judged to be causingdeforestation. Previously, it has outlawed investments in areasincluding nuclear weapons and tobacco. (Reporting by Nerijus Adomaitis; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
