Government Pension Fund Global, Oslo, has guidelines for company exclusions that need updating in relation to arms and weapons, a government-appointed committee says.
The committee was appointed in April 2019, to review the 10.2 trillion Norwegian kroner ($1.1 trillion) sovereign wealth fund's ethical investment guidelines. A report outlining the committee's proposals was published Monday by the Norwegian Ministry of Finance.
The committee proposed a number of adjustments to "reflect the evolution of ethical norms over the past 15 years and to catch up with certain new issues that have emerged," said Ola Mested, chair of the fund's ethics committee, in a statement accompanying the report.
Guidelines relating to arms production and corruption, the sale of arms, indigenous peoples' rights and the use of surveillance technology were the main areas for development.
The weapons-related criteria should be amended in certain areas and the list of relevant weapon types should be "encompassed in the guidelines themselves." Lethal autonomous weapons should be added to the list of product-based criteria for exclusion, it said.
The committee also proposed that a new, conduct-based criterion related to "the sale of weapons to states involved in armed conflict where there is an unacceptable risk that the weapons are used in military operations that constitute serious and systematic violations of international humanitarian law."
Regarding this inclusion, the fund's Council on Ethics will identify relevant companies for exclusion based on a "broad and authoritative assemblage of information," the committee said.
Part of the report is available for download on the Ministry of Finance website.
