Is the Nobel Prize money invested in nuclear weapons?

Future in our hands demands that the Foundation divests from unethical businesses, and gives the public full insight in their investments.

Flawed ethics and lack of openness

The Foundation places its assets of approximately 444 million euro in various funds. The Nobel Foundation lacks strict ethical guidelines and has a very limited openness about its investments. It has been very difficult to gain insight into how the Nobel Foundation manages its funds.

Future in our hands has found investments in SAAB AB, which manufactures weapons and security systems. The company manufactures, among other things, fighter aircrafts. On top of this, it is very likely that the Nobel Foundation is invested in companies involved in production of nuclear weapons. These companies, Airbus, Boeing, Safran and Northrop Grumman Corp, have been excluded by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund for breaching their ethical guidelines.

^{- They invested in weapons. The same money that Alfred Nobel wanted to work towards "reduction of military forces". We can not exclude that the Foundation's money is invested in companies producing nuclear weapons and cluster munitions. It's very serious if ICAN is receiving money formerly invested in nuclear weapons, says Anja Bakken Riise, head in The Future in our hands.}

This is not the first time that Future in our hands has tried to disclose the investments from the Nobel Foundations. Back in 2005, the Foundation confirmed that it lacked any ethical guidelines and that all decisions on where to invest was left to the managers of the different funds where the Foundation chose to invest its money. Future in our hands are shocked that this still seem to be the investment policy at the Nobel Foundation.

In a comment to NRK, the Norwegian broadcaster, Lars Heikensten, director of the Nobel Foundation in Sweden, would not comment if they were invested in specific companies or sectors. Read more nrk.no

ICAN has been vocal on the issue that institutions must divest from nuclear weapons.

Read more: (PDF) "The Controversial Investments of the Nobel Foundations – what we found and how we found it"The Controversial Investments of the Nobel Foundations – what we found and how we found it"

Tobacco and coal

Investments were also found in the tobacco companies British American Tobacco and Swedish Match AB, both blacklisted by the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund and investments have also been found in problematic coal and oil companies such as RWE, one of Germany's and Europe's largest coal companies.

Requires better ethics and transparency

"It is shocking that the Nobel Foundation has such a limited ethical framework for its investments. The Nobel Foundation must strengthen its ethical guidelines as soon as possible, and exclude companies for environmental and human rights violations.

Read more nrk.no

Contact: Anne Kari Garberg, anne.kari@framtiden.no, Mob: + 47 942 37 449