**The "Lost Trillion": Britain Creates a £2 Billion Fund While Norway Bathes in Oil Money**

UK Chancellor John Healey announced the creation of the Energy Wealth Fund — a fund with initial capital of £2 billion that will invest revenues from North Sea oil and gas into renewable energy and low-carbon infrastructure.

_"If We Had Done This Then"_

Healey stated: "If we had done this when North Sea oil was first discovered in the 1980s, we would now have a British sovereign wealth fund worth probably a trillion pounds."

The figure comes from Treasury modeling: if historical revenues of £200 billion had been invested without withdrawals and with returns comparable to Norway's, the result would be about £1 trillion.

_How Norway Did It_

The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global received its first capital in 1996 and has grown to approximately $2.4 trillion. Norway invests revenues abroad and annually withdraws about 3% to finance the budget. The tax on oil companies' profits in Norway reaches 78%.

_Why the Comparison Is Lame_

Critics point out: Norway's oil and gas sector accounts for about 20% of GDP with a population of 5.6 million, whereas in Britain it is only 1.3% of GDP. In addition, the Norwegian fund only began operating in earnest in the late 1990s, when the Labour Party was already in power in Britain.

The publication Economics Affairs called the £1 trillion figure "pure fantasy," since it assumes that no British government would ever have spent these revenues.

_What Will Happen to the New Fund_

The British fund, unlike the Norwegian one, will invest domestically — in green energy. The North Sea is a mature, declining basin, so future tax revenues will decline.

_Bottom Line_

Norway invested oil revenues for the benefit of future generations. Britain spent them to pay current bills. Now the last oil money will go toward financing a future without oil. Better late than never — but 40 years is, perhaps, already too late.

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