Comment from a citizen in Victoria, BC:
Yesssssss! Now for Cdn govt to stop stupid subsidies, and Canadian Pension Plan to divest!
How will KKKenney ‘n CAPP eat this powerful news? Lie ‘n blast a lot? Down go Alberta’s heavy water wasting, polluting tarsands! Is this why KKKenney is stealing pensions from teachers and others, and trying to steal our CPP – to launder $billions of our money via AIMCo into Alberta’s dying tar patch?
Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund Divests Itself Of Climate-Destroying Stocks Worth $3 Billion by Steve Hanley, May 14th, 2020, cleantechnica.com
The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund has sold $3 billion worth of energy stocks and other companies it finds are seriously harming the environment. Most of the stocks it sold in the energy sector are for Canadian companies involved in producing and distributing oil derived from the Alberta tar sands. According to the CBC, Norges Bank Investment Management, which manages Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, announced on Wednesday it would stop investing in Calgary-based Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy, and Imperial Oil after concluding they produce unacceptable levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
… In addition to the 4 Canadian oil companies, the Sovereign Wealth Fund excluded three other companies because of the severe environmental damage attributable to their operations. — Egypt’s ElSewedy Electric Co, Brazilian iron ore miner Vale SA , and Brazilian power holding Eletrobras.
Getting rid of the shares of the 7 companies at this time wasn’t an easy task, given the market turmoil caused by the coronavirus and the plunging price of crude oil. Apparently, there weren’t all that many buyers begging to acquire the shares of those companies.
Trudeau: We Have To Adjust
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said during a press conference after the announcement, “We’ve seen investors around the world looking at the risks associated with climate change as an integral part of investment decisions they make. That is why it is so important for Canada to continue to move forward on fighting climate change and reduce our emissions in all sectors. I can highlight that many companies in the energy sector have understood that the investment climate is shifting and there is a need for clear leadership and clear targets to reach on fighting climate change to draw on global capital.” Buying an oil pipeline that Canada doesn’t want and can’t use may not be an example of such clear leadership, but we can’t expect national leaders to be perfect.
Alberta Reacts With Scorn
Alberta, which has built its entire economy on delivering the dirtiest energy on Earth to the rest of the world, was shocked and outraged by the announcement. Its energy minister called the boycott “poorly informed and highly hypocritical.” Sonya Savage, a member of the Alberta legislature, issued a statement saying, “Canada’s energy producers have some of the highest environmental, social and governance standards in the world. A recent review of these standards put Canada — driven by Alberta’s energy sector — third behind only Norway and Denmark. When looking at the top ten oil exporting nations Canada ranks first — well above other countries, some of them with little or no human rights, supplying the world’s growing oil demand.” Ha ha! What typical over the top whining Alberta garbage! Who did the review? Kenney? His lying idotic ego-heavy War Room? Harper? Ted Morton? CAPP? Encana? Illegal aquifer-frac’er CEO Gwyn Morgan?
Alex Pourbaix, CEO of Cenovus, said his company is focused on its environmental footprint. “Pulling investments from the oil sands and claiming it’s for climate change reasons is more about publicity than fact. Cenovus has reduced the GHG emissions intensity at our oil sands operations by approximately 30% over the past 15 years. And we’ve set ambitious targets to reduce our emissions intensity by another 30 per cent across our operations by 2030 and hold absolute emissions flat during that time.” Cenovus was hatched from illegal lying aquifer-frac’er, mass toxic waste dumper Encana. It’s unwise to believe any word uttered by Cenovus/Encana/Ovintiv executives, current, past or present. Refer below for a more accurate statement by Council on Ethics, The Government Pension Fund Global, on Cenovus in the tarsands.
Well, Sonya and Alex, you may not have noticed, but the demand for oil is definitely not growing and reducing emissions from the production of oil is not the same as reducing emissions from burning it.
Tar sands oil is the dirtiest form of fossil fuel energy there is. Not only does it make a cesspool of the places where it is extracted, it is so dirty that it costs more to refine and it’s still dirtier than other varieties of oil when burned.
Next we can expect armed protesters to be roaming the streets of Calgary screaming about liberty and saying they have a God-given right to destroy the Earth with the pestilence known as fossil fuels because, you know, jobs and profits and stuff. What we are really seeing here is another stake through the heart of the oil industry, which needs to fade away so it can be replaced by renewable energy alternatives.
That’s the only way to give people today any hope of leaving a habitable world to their grandchildren. The world is fully capable of thriving on renewable energy and electric vehicles. We know what needs to be done. Why are we so reluctant to do it?
Sounds like Cenovus CEO Pourbaix and Alberta UCP are wearing their underware wrong!
Subject: Bitumen I’m Afraid Is NOT a Crude Oil!!—As Such Is Far More Damaging To Our Enviornment
Date: Thu, 14 May 2020 10:51:53 -0600
From: Stewart Shields email hidden; JavaScript is required
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Those who have followed oil production around the globe know that although Norway has about the same production—land mass—and population—similarities with Alberta end right there!! Although our Premier would have us believe both Alberta and Norway produced similar petro-products—nothing could be further from the truth!! Norway developed a nice crude oil in the Norwegian North Sea in a safe and careful manner—while Alberta is managing a very hurtful Bitumen substance from sand– it demands it’s public to also call an OIL?? Norway was also invited into the group who drilled Hibernia by our Trudeau Sr. simply for safety reasons and their experience in successful off shore development!! Norway stayed with it’s involvement in the Canadian North Sea and were finally rewarded with a giant find in the “Flemish Pass” that remains undeveloped due to excessive volumes of crude oil!!
To attempt to compare the bitumen muck Alberta is mining and it’s affects on our environment with North Sea crude oil—is a huge mistake and exaggeration —however Albertans should invite instead a comparative between “Norway’s petroleum Management” to better it’s public’s standard of living– with what consecutive Conservative Governments in Alberta provided their owning public??
Norway’s careful and wise management of their oil and gas reserves led to their public owning the largest capital pool in the world although only getting started in 1990 !!
Alberta meanwhile under Conservative Management have been slogging along since 1948 and have wound –up in 2020 needing federal funding to clean-up industries environmental messes and looking again at federal help to keep their petro-industry supplied with Liquidity ??
Some of the “Conservative unintelligent” will try to blame Canada’s equalization on the difference between the two producing States– however Norway have an Army-Navy- and Air force that is supplied to Alberta– not to mention one of the greatest Coast Guards in the world??
Alberta has missed many of the obvious opportunities that became available—to Norway –- and their management teams—so heed for a change what we’re being told by a group who have proved beyond a doubt to be much much wiser and far less damaging to it’s population–than those leading Alberta down our slippery slope!! Selling a bitumen slurry as an excuse for a crude oil —and needing special equipped refineries to bring it to a useable product increases our pollution much much higher than Norway would ever allow!! The very fact that our WCS needs a Fixed-Price for crude oils to survive should warn Albertan’s about allowing our managers to invest too heavy in this foul product!! Don’t allow those in Alberta making money from our resource to convince you that Bitumen is really a crude oil!!
Stewart Shields, Lacombe Alberta
Southern slams ‘hypocritical’ move by Norway’s wealth fund to drop oilsands by Chris Varcoe, May 14, 2020, Calgary Herald
Ms. Southern working for CAPP ‘n Kenney’s propaganda room too along with the Calgary Herald? Does Norway or the world give a shit about her over-the-top huffing ‘n puffing?
ATCO Ltd. chief executive Nancy Southern devoted part of her opening address at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday to deliver a passionate defence of Canada’s energy sector. And after the event, she didn’t hold back on speaking out against a decision by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to ditch its investments in four Canadian oilsands producers over climate concerns.
“I believe it is short-sighted,” Southern said in an interview. “I just see a piling on, whether it is the credit rating agencies, whether it’s government leaders, whether it is universities jumping on to this bandwagon. And I think it is time for people to stand up and demonstrate true moral leadership about the fact that the world is better because of petroleum products.”
Better World or Increased Death by Disease, including Covid-19, and hoarding?
Canada’s biggest oil producers, including Cenovus, hoarding near-record pile of cash
… What frustrates Southern and many in the sector is the lack of recognition of the progress Progress? Lies more like it. There’s no progress in Alberta’s tarshit industry. If anything AER is hugely deregulating (while lying to the public and investors) making sure tarshit pollution and the related massive toxic waste lakes do not need to be mitigated or cleaned up to increase profits for a few billionaires. the industry has made in reducing its emissions per barrel in recent years, the work underway to lower it further, and the oilpatch’s importance to the national economy. …
“What more can you ask of them? What more do they have to do?” Southern said of the divestment decision. “It is hypocritical.” …
Asked Wednesday about the divestment decision, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said investors around the world are assessing the risks associated with climate change as a part of their overall investment decisions.
“Many companies in the energy sector have understood that the investment climate is shifting and there’s a need for clear leadership and clear targets to reach on fighting climate change to draw on global capital,” he said.
… “From my point of view, it’s disappointing to see a big fund like this throw them all under the bus,” said Masson, former CEO of the Alberta Petroleum Marketing Commission. Poor polluting, cash-hoarding babies! The mega brutes will find plenty ignorant greedy pollution and health harming investors elsewhere to feed them money (until they lose their shirts and underware) – including whatever Kenney can steal from pensioners to give to AIMCo to launder into dirty washwater for the failing tar industry.
“We need to make sure we work together so the world understands we are doing the right things.” …
Speaking to reporters, Premier Jason Kenney blasted the Norwegian fund’s decision, saying it underscores why Alberta needs to get its message out to European institutional investors about the progress being made on lowering emissions, along with environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. Won’t do any good Kenney. Blast uselessly away all you like. Europeans aren’t as stupid as tarshit-enabling Canadians. Best, your baffoonery of a propaganda war room is waking intelligent investors up all over the world to the reality of dirty No Rule of Law Alberta (outside of TrumpHarperKenneyLandia of course).
“To be blunt, I find that incredibly hypocritical. That entire sovereign fund owes its genesis to oil revenues coming from the North Sea reserves of Norway. It’s the pot calling the kettle black,” Kenney said.
He pointed out Alberta announced Tuesday it’s reached an equivalency agreement with Ottawa that is expected to lower methane emissions in the province by 45 per cent from 2014 levels by 2025.
Exclusion decisions and decisions to revoke exclusion, Norges Bank has decided to exclude seven companies from the Government Pension Fund Global and revoke two exclusions by Norges Bank Invesment Management, 13 May 2020
Norges Bank’s Executive Board has decided to exclude the companies Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy Inc After Ernst filed her lawsuit, Encana split off it’s oil riches into Cenovus. Dirty illegal aquifer frac’ing cowards, Suncor Energy Inc, and Imperial Oil Limited after an assessment that acts or omissions that on an aggregate company level lead to unacceptable greenhouse gas emissions, ref. section 3, subsection d, of the Guidelines for Observation and Exclusion of Companies from the Government Pension Fund Global.
The Council on Ethics recommended to exclude the companies because of carbon emissions from production of oil to oil sands. It is the first time this criterion is being applied.
In addition, the companies ElSewedy Electric Co and Vale SA are excluded after an assessment of the risk of contribution to severe environmental damage, ref. section 3, subsection c, of the guidelines.
It was recommended that ElSewedy Electric Co be excluded because of its participation in the development of a hydropower project in Tanzania. It was recommended that Vale be excluded as a result of repeated dam breach.
The Executive Board has also decided to exclude the company Centrais Eletricas Brasileiras SA (Eletrobras) because of unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious or systematic human rights violations, ref. section 3, subsection a, of the guidelines. It was recommended that the company be excluded because of human rights violations in connection with the development of the powerplant Belo Monte in Brazil.
The Executive Board’s exclusion decisions were made based on recommendations from the Council on Ethics. For several of the companies of which exclusion is now being made public, the market situation, including liquidity in individual shares, has meant that it has taken a long time to sell the shares in a reasonable manner. That explains why a long period of time has passed between some of the decisions and the publication.
Decisions to revoke exclusion
Norges Bank has decided to revoke the exclusion of AECOM and Texwinca Holdings Ltd.
The Executive Board’s decision to revoke the exclusion of the companies was made based on recommendations from the Council on Ethics, which shall regularly assess whether the basis for observation or exclusion still exists, ref. section 5, subsection 5, of the guidelines.
AECOM Ltd was excluded in 2018 on the basis of production of nuclear weapons. These activities have now been discontinued. Against this background, the Council on Ethics has recommended that there is no longer a basis for excluding the company. Texwinca Holdings Ltd was excluded in 2019 because of systematic breach of workers’ rights in factories owned by a subsidiary. The Council of Ethics has been informed that the subsidiary is liquidated. Based on this information, the Council on Ethics has recommended that the exclusion be revoked.
Norges Bank’s Executive Board has not independently assessed all aspects in the recommendations, but finds it adequately substantiated that the criteria for exclusion and observation have been fulfilled under the guidelines.
The Council on Ethics’ recommendations
Canadian Natural Resources Limited
Cenovus Energy Inc Oil riches split from Encana to Cenovus after Ernst lawsuit filed.
2019 11 07: Recommendation to exclude Cenovus Energy Inc from investment by the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) by Council on Ethics, The Government Pension Fund Global Summary The Council on Ethics recommends that Cenovus Energy Inc (Cenovus) be excluded from investment by the Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG) due to the greenhouse gas emissions from its extraction of oil from oil sand. According to the GPFG’s ethical guidelines, companies may be excluded if there is an unacceptable risk that they contribute to or are responsible for unacceptable greenhouse gas emissions at an aggregate company level. The Council on Ethics issued a similar recommendation to exclude the company on 30 May 2017. At that time, however, the criterion was open to different interpretations. This caused Norges Bank to refrain from making a decision on this case until further clarification had been obtained. The Norwegian Ministry of Finance subsequently clarified certain areas of the criterion’s interpretation in Report No. 20 (2018–2019) to the Norwegian Storting. The report states that companies’ absolute emission levels, emission intensity and emission reduction policy and targets may constitute the primary grounds for assessment under the climate criterion. At the same time, the report makes it clear that recommendations must contain a description of any climate frameworks to which the company is subject. According to the report, where a company complies with laws and regulations and is covered by strict climate regulations, such as the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), its emissions cannot in themselves be said to constitute an unacceptable behaviour. The report further states that the EU’s climate regulations must be considered stringent on the basis of its rules, compliance mechanisms, scale-down factor and emissions allowance pricing. This recommendation has therefore been updated with respect to those issues affected by the Ministry’s clarification. Oil production in general produces high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, and the production of oil from oil sand generates in most cases materially higher greenhouse gas emissions than conventional oil production. The Council on Ethics finds that companies which base their operations on oil sand may therefore be said to have unacceptable greenhouse gas emissions. Cenovus is a Canadian oil producer, with extensive production of oil from oil sand in Alberta, Canada. More than 90 per cent of the company’s oil reserves are in oil sand, and between 2016 and 2018, it doubled its oil sand-based output. Since 2018, all of its oil production has derived from oil sand. The company has substantially reduced its greenhouse gas emissions per unit produced in recent years, but from a high level. Nevertheless, the company’s greenhouse gas emissions per unit produced in 2018 were twice the global average and more than three times as high as from oil production in Europe. Cenovus aims to reduce its emissions by 33 per cent in the period 2016 to 2026. Cenovus is subject to a climate framework that does not incorporate a cap-and-trade based emission trading mechanism, that has no scale-down factor and that has a carbon price that is very much lower than for oil production under the EU-ETS arrangement. The Council therefore takes the view that the company is not regulated by what Report No. 20 (2018–2019) describes as a stringent climate framework. In its assessment of future risk, the Council on Ethics notes that Cenovus aims to achieve a significant reduction in its greenhouse gas emissions. However, the Council does not consider that the measures are sufficiently concrete or the emission targets sufficiently ambitious. The Council also points out that even if the company did realise its emission-reduction target, it would still not bring the company’s emissions down to the average level for conventional oil production. The Council also considers that the company’s considerable oil sand reserves show that Cenovus has a relatively long-term objective of basing much of its production on this resource.
Centrais Electricas Brasileiras SA (Electrobras)
Press contact:
Marthe Skaar
Head of Communications and External Relations (acting), Norges Bank Investment Management
Tel. no.: +47 92617663
E-mail: email hidden; JavaScript is required
At 2019, the fund was valued at 1,148 Billion dollars. Bye bye Cenovus.
World’s biggest wealth fund blacklists Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus, Suncor and Imperial Oil for carbon emissions by Gwladys Fouche and Terje Solsvik, Reuters, May 12, 2020, The Globe and Mail
Norway’s $1 trillion wealth fund is excluding some of the world’s biggest commodities firms from its portfolio for their use and production of coal, including Glencore and Anglo American.
Underlining the growing role of climate considerations for long-term investors, the fund is also excluding German utility RWE, South African petrochemicals firm Sasol and Dutch company AGL Energy over their use of coal.
Norway’s parliament agreed in June 2019 to toughen existing limits on coal investments by the world’s largest wealth fund by excluding companies that mined more than 20 million tonnes of coal a year or generated more than 10 gigawatts of power from coal.
The fund held stocks worth $1.6-billion in such companies at the end of 2019, according to fund data. Wednesday’s announcement is the first to show the tougher rules being applied.
The fund, set up in 1996 to save Norway’s oil revenues for future generations, now holds about 1.5% of globally listed shares and its decisions are often followed by other investors. It sells holdings before announcing any exclusions to avoid excessive market moves.
The fund put another set of companies – BHP, Uniper, Enel and Vistra Energy – under observation for possible exclusion later if they did not address their use or production of coal.
The value of holdings in this group stood at $3.9 billion at the end of last year.
“This is good news that the biggest producers of coal in absolute terms are finally out of the fund,” Else Hendel, acting environmental policy leader at green group WWF Norway, told Reuters.
EXCESSIVE EMISSIONS
The fund, which operates under ethical guidelines set by parliament, also said it was excluding four Canadian oil companies for producing excessive greenhouse gas emissions, the first time it has used that reason to blacklist firms.
Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil were excluded for “acts or omissions that on an aggregate company level lead to unacceptable greenhouse gas emissions,” it said.
The fund held stock worth $1.15 billion in these companies at the end of 2019.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, in response to the fund’s exclusion of the four, that many oil companies understood the investment climate was changing because of concerns about climate change.
Excessive greenhouse gas emissions became a criterion for exclusion four years ago. But the central bank, the fund’s ethics watchdog and the finance ministry took time to agree on what constituted an unacceptable amount of emissions.
Wednesday’s announcement opens the way for more companies to be excluded on those grounds.
The head of the fund’s ethics watchdog told Reuters in March that, once the first ones were published, others companies would follow. Concrete and steel firms have also been probed, he said, without naming them. …
Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus Energy, Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil did not respond to requests for comment after market hours.
Refer also to:
2020: JP Morgan leaked report has dire warnings for human race. Then quit giving the fossil fuel sector so much money! JP Morgan was one of 33 financial institutions that gave estimated total of $1.9tn to fossil fuel sector between 2016 and 2018
Noteworthy:
- The earth is on an unsustainable trajectory; something must change for humans to survive.
- Individual actions are not enough, we need government action.
- Fossil fuel funders aren’t looking at the man in the mirror.