The Norwegian Petroleum Fund: Savings for Future Generations?
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Accepted version
Date
2020-05-29Metadata
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Original version
Takle M. The Norwegian Petroleum Fund: Savings for Future Generations?. Environmental Values. 2020 https://dx.doi.org/10.3197/096327120X15868540131305Abstract
The Norwegian state-owned Petroleum Fund’s market value is more than one trillion
US dollars. The Norwegian state has become one of the world’s largest stockowners.
The Fund was established in 1990 and in 2006 it was renamed the ‘Government
Pension Fund Global’, as savings for future generations. What kind of values form the
basis for describing the Petroleum Fund in this way? This article shows that the idea
that present generations should not empty the North Sea of oil and gas without saving
something for future generations has been stable since the 1970s. However, over time,
the understanding of how to save has changed. More specifically, experts, bureaucrats
and politicians have shifted their arguments during four phases: moderation in oil
extraction (1974 – 1983); introduction of the national wealth model (1984-1990); a
financial fund for the present and the future (1991 – 2006) and increased income and
new protests (2007 – 2019). These four periods show that over time the idea of weak
sustainability and value commensurability have increasingly come to dominate the
argumentation in public documents about the Petroleum Fund.