The sovereign wealth funds of major oil-producing countries have agreed upon a common roadmap to encourage investments toward a greener economy.
The six funds from Norway, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and New Zealand released a joint framework Friday to encourage investors to take climate-related risks into consideration when investing. They also want to improve businesses’ transparency on their strategies toward establishing low-carbon economic growth.
The funds hope to send a signal that will impact the international financial system. Altogether, they are worth $3 trillion. Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the world’s largest of its kind, is worth $1 trillion alone.
The document is to be formally presented during a meeting in Paris of the heads of the funds with French President Emmanuel Macron and Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg.
State-owned sovereign wealth funds are designed to invest their countries’ public money for the long term. In an apparent paradox, except for New Zealand, the five others are based on fossil fuels.