The Council on Ethics recommends that Elsewedy Electric Co be excluded from investment by the fund due to an unacceptable risk that the company is contributing to or is itself responsible for serious environmental damage
Elsewedy Electric is an Egyptian electrical power company and one of two partners in a joint venture which builds a dam and a hydroelectric power plant on the Rufiji River at Stiegler’s Gorge in Tanzania. The entire project is located inside the Selous Game Reserve, which has been included on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites in Danger. The reserve is also one of the last remaining large-scale wilderness areas in Africa and considered of extraordinary importance for the preservation of biodiversity. The hydroelectric power plant will cause widespread and irreversible damage to the world heritage site’s outstanding universal values. Mitigating measures would have little impact on this outcome.
The Council on Ethics submitted its recommendation 2 July 2019. Norges Bank published its decision to exclude the company on 12 May 2020.