On Friday 27 October, the Nobel Foundation announced its intention to divest from nuclear weapon producing companies. Nobel Foundation director Lars Heikensten said, “At the latest, by March next year we will have no investment in anything that is connected with any kind of production which is classified as connected with nuclear weapons”.
Framtiden i våre hender (Future in our hands -Norway) is Norway´s largest environmental and solidarity organization, it reported that there was a connection between the Nobel Foundation and nuclear weapon producing companies earlier this month.
Heikensten said that after a hardening of the its ethical rules, the foundation had stopped investing, even indirectly, in producers of nuclear weapons, and that it had given itself 12 months to adjust or opt out of funds that invest in companies that manufacture these bombs.
“We welcome the announcement by Mr. Heikensten, and anticipate that the Foundation will remove all direct and indirect investment in nuclear weapon producers from its portfolio without delay” said Susi Snyder, coordinator of Don’t Bank on the Bomb.
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
PAX and ICAN produce regular research analysing investment into nuclear weapon producing companies, and advocate divestment through Don’t Bank on the Bomb. This research focuses on financial institutions – their investments and policies, and therefore does not show individual investors, nor does it identify specific indices that are connected to nuclear weapon producers. ICAN campaigners have also been behind efforts to end funding for companies associated with the production of nuclear weapons.