(Reuters) -Norway’s $1.8 trillion sovereign wealth, the world’s largest, has decided to revoke its exclusion on German utility RWE, fund operator Norges Bank Investment Management said on Sunday.
In 2020, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund had excluded RWE, alongside Glencore, Anglo American, Sasol and AGL Energy, for the use and production of coal under updated ethical guidelines.
In 2022, RWE, Germany’s biggest utility, brought forward its coal phase-out by eight years and is ready to end lignite-based electricity generation in 2030 as part of a deal reached with the government.
The Norwegian fund said that several milestones with regards to the phaseout have already been reached.
“We consider that the coal-fired power capacity is now below the absolute threshold specified in the coal criterion. Coal mining will nevertheless remain above the threshold for some time to come,” fund operator NBIM said in a statement.
About half of RWE’s installed renewable capacity is based in the United States.
(Reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
