---
title: Oslo divests from coal – – the first capital city to do so
date: 2015-03-02T13:53:00Z
modified: 2023-10-12T12:16:27Z
permalink: "https://350.org/oslo-divests-from-coal-the-first-capital-city-to-do-so/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 37296
categories:
  - Finance
tags:
  - Europe
  - Norway
featured_image: /wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Oslo-divests-300x200.jpg
---

[![Oslo-divests](https://gofossilfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Oslo-divests-300x200.jpg)

](https://gofossilfree.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Oslo-divests.jpg)Just a few short weeks after 1000 people hit the streets of Oslo demanding divestment from fossil fuels on [Global Divestment Day,](https://globaldivestmentday.org) we’re hearing [reports](https://www.nrk.no/ostlandssendingen/oslo-sier-nei-til-kullkraft-1.12233809) that the City of Oslo has responded by divesting from coal.

Oslo is divesting US$7 million from its pension fund investments in coal. This places Oslo as the first capital city in the world to make a divestment commitment and we should congratulate them for doing so.

Our partners in the divestment campaign over in Norway, [Framtiden i våre hender](https://www.framtiden.no/fossilfri/aktuelt/oslo-dropper-kull.html) met the news with the following response:

> _“The year of 2015 is important, both because this is the year when we need to come together globally and secure a path towards a carbon free society, but in Norway we’re also having local elections, and if there’s any time for local leaders to show what future they want – this is the time._
> 
> _The fact that Oslo is now divesting from coal is a victory for our hard work, and sends a strong signal to the government that is currently reviewing the investments of the national oil fund. We will regard it as poor leadership if the government choose to take a less powerful stand than Oslo when deciding their own strategy for a sustainable future.”_

Framtiden had sent a letter to the mayor of Oslo along with other Norwegian municipalities in January, asking them to take climate leadership and become fossil free.

Let this be a signal for other cities to follow suit. It should also be inspiration to the Fossil Free network that organising for divestment is a solid strategy, and to keep on pushing the communities in which we live to make the right, moral and financial choice by divesting from oil, coal and gas.