Animal welfare, included at the end of December in a guidance document on consumer interests, will be discussed with companies as part of dialogue with their management and during shareholder votes, indicates the fund.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world with around 1.7 trillion euros in assets, has urged the companies in which it invests to respect animal welfare, a development welcomed by its defenders.
“We regularly update our expectations of companies on sustainability and have recently included animal welfare,” Caroline Eriksen, a fund manager, said in an email to AFP.
In practice, the fund, which weighs nearly 20,000 billion crowns (1,601 billion francs), asks the groups in which it holds shares to respect the health code for terrestrial animals of the World Organization for Animal Health.
This code lists numerous recommendations aimed in particular at sparing animals from hunger and thirst, fear and stress, pain, illness and injury, or even discomfort.
Animal welfare, included at the end of December in a guidance document on consumer interests, will be discussed with companies as part of dialogue with their management and during shareholder votes, indicates the fund.
-Invested in some 9,000 companies around the world, the Norwegian fund notably has shares in agri-food giants such as the Chinese WH Group and the Americans Tyson Foods and Pilgrim’s Pride.
The announcement was welcomed by the organization Dyrevernalliansen (Alliance for the Protection of Animals), which called it “a major step forward”.
“We have been working for years to ensure that the sovereign wealth fund recognizes animal welfare as a relevant factor,” said Live Kleveland, spokesperson for the association, in a press release.
Over the years, the Norwegian fund has adopted numerous guidance documents listing its expectations in many areas, from the fight against climate change to the fight against corruption.
Its decisions are all the more important because they are then replicated by other investors around the world.
Related News :