Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 31 May 2023

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Svein Gjedrem:

The answer to that is "Yes". There are responsible investments. If there are companies not fulfilling reasonable ethical standards, the fund should disinvest from those companies. We are not investing in tobacco companies. We are not investing in some companies that have an activity with an impact on the environment. That is not acceptable. There are therefore companies we withdraw from based on some general principles. There is also an active communication between the fund as an owner of companies and the companies on ethical issues in the companies. As the committee will know, in most companies and in the world it is not black and white; there is a lot of grey. Companies can, and most are willing to, improve their ethical standards through a good dialogue with their owners, so we take part in that kind of dialogue with companies as well.