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For Immediate Release
March, 07 2019, 11:00pm EDT
Contact:
Mark Raven, European Communications Coordinator, mark@350.org, +44 7841474125
Norwegian Government Recommends $7.5 Billion Divestment From Oil and Gas
Oslo, Norway
Today, the government of Norway announced a recommendation for the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, worth $1 trillion, to divest more than $7.5 billion of holdings from upstream oil and gas industries. This proposal will next be put to a parliamentary vote.
"If it passes through parliament this decision will deal a large blow to the illusion that the fossil fuel industry still has decades of business as usual ahead of it. This should sound like a red alert for private banks and investors whose oil and gas assets are becoming increasingly risky and morally untenable," says Yossi Cadan, senior divestment campaigner at 350.org. "The flip side of the coin is that fossil fuel giants like Exxon and Shell will still remain in the fund's investment portfolio. This divestment proposal is a big step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough to help avoid climate chaos."
To avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change and keep global warming below 1.5degC we have to keep fossil fuels in the ground and shift finance towards sustainable energy solutions for all. Climate impacts are already hitting home and we have no time left to lose. Last year Nordic heatwaves, wildfires in the Arctic Circle and alarming news of the thickest Arctic sea ice starting to break up, showed how climate change is close to home for Norway. The Norwegian government is proposing that the Sovereign Wealth Fund drop some of its oil and gas assets to reduce financial risks, but at the same time the government is increasing the huge risk of climate impacts by continuing its support for companies like Exxon and Shell.
The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund pledged to divest from coal in 2015, today's proposal builds on that by targeting all fossil fuels and demonstrating the growing strength and momentum of the global divestment movement. Since the movement started in 2012 over 1000 institutions with managed investments worth over $8 trillion have committed to divest from fossil fuel firms like Exxon and Shell. At the core of it all is a people-powered grassroots movement - it's ordinary people pushing their local institutions to take a stand against the fossil fuel industry - the industry most responsible for the current climate crisis.
350 is building a future that's just, prosperous, equitable and safe from the effects of the climate crisis. We're an international movement of ordinary people working to end the age of fossil fuels and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all.
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Israel made it abundantly clear on Wednesday that it does not consider Lebanon to be protected by Tuesday night’s ceasefire that halted hostilities for two weeks between the US and Iran.
Hours after the ceasefire was reached, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that it had begun "the largest coordinated strike across Lebanon," since it began its assault on the country in early March, with bombardments on what it said were Hezbollah targets across Beirut, Bekaa, and southern Lebanon.
The head of the Lebanese Red Cross said attacks across the capital have killed and wounded more than 300 people.
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According to The Guardian:
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The streets of Beirut were filled with cars crumpled by the blasts and the flaming wreckage of buildings that first responders struggled to extinguish.
People rushed home to check on their families; a man filmed as he ran towards a struck building in the Chiyah neighbourhood, screaming: “There are people inside!”
Pictures of rubble-covered children circulated on social media as people tried to find their parents.
Israel said it attacked more than 100 targets in less than 10 minutes.
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"The wounded and casualties are numerous," said Lebanese Red Cross head Georges Kettaneh, according to the Lebanese news network LBCI. "We are doing everything we can to save them.”
Israel launched another wave of attacks across other parts Lebanon, including a strike on an ambulance in Tyre that killed at least four people, according to local sources.
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Lebanon's prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said on social media: "Whilst we welcomed the agreement between Iran and the United States, and stepped up our efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in Lebanon, Israel continues to escalate its attacks, which have targeted densely populated residential neighborhoods and claimed the lives of unarmed civilians across Lebanon."
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Israel routinely violated its previous ceasefire with Lebanon that began in November 2024 with more than 10,000 air and land attacks over the first year, which the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said demonstrated a “total disregard of the ceasefire agreement.” It has done the same in Gaza, where hundreds of Palestinians have been killed since a ceasefire began in October 2025.
The Beirut-based journalist Séamus Malekafzali warned that by launching the "largest attacks... of this war so far" immediately after the US and Iran reached a tentative agreement, Israel was attempting to create conditions that make a durable ceasefire impossible.
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Hegseth: If Iran refused our terms, the next targets would have been their power plants, their bridges and oil and energy infrastructure—we were locked and loaded. They couldn't defend against it. President Trump chose mercy because Iran accepted the ceasefire under overwhelming… pic.twitter.com/QMklWNM8PH
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