Except, in Norway, their pension and economy are STILL getting built on O&G.

I think your claims are too extreme.

edit: adding quote from European Commission data

  "Norway is in the global top 5 exporters of crude oil.  The oil
  and gas sector constitutes around 22% of Norwegian GDP and 67% 
  of Norwegian exports." [1]

[1] http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/count...

At this point in time, it feels like a national addiction.

We know it will be over some days, we know it does all kinds of harm, but we seem incapable of stopping.

The nation is as we "speak" grinding to a slow halt thanks to the oil slump.

And during the peak people were all set about starting extraction in the middle of one of the nations biggest fishing areas.

"their pension and economy are STILL getting built on O&G"

I don't quite get the peculiar use of the word "still" in your sentence, seeing as the topic seems to be ditching coal and not ditching oil or gas.

Yes, the NOR pension is ditching* coal.

That said, you're not fairly representing the context of my comment. The parent comment made this exaggerated critique, saying that "all of modern capitalism" can be considered tainted based on PRIOR behavior (assuming the grandparent's comment were valid.)

This is not only a strawman, but absurd.

I'm pointing out that it isn't limited to prior behavior for what we're talking about. Here, we have a petro-state with 2/3 of its exports STILL in O&G (aka "dirty technology") taking a stance on coal because coal's not Environment Friendly™. This contrasts with countries that were built on "dirty tech/slavery/whatever" and are no longer utilizing similar means.

To clarify, nobody's saying NOR can't change course or exhibit environmental leadership. I'd argue NOR's investment implications and the $2.3B change in allocation aren't significant.

Not to mention significant amounts of slave labor, child labor, war profiteering, fraud, outright theft, etc.

In other words, by similar logic it could be called “holier-than-thou” for westerners to have any standards whatsoever about investment choices, because our wealth is built on all kinds of unsavory sources.

And you will see the likes of China pull that card whenever there is some kind of international talk about something that will affect their industries.

  "by similar logic..."

Please...do other countries currently have 22% of GDP tied to [slave labor, child labor, war profiteering, fraud, outright theft, etc.]?

[1] http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/count...

edit:

  In other words, by similar logic it could be called “holier-than-thou” 
  for westerners to have any standards whatsoever about investment choices,
  because our wealth is built on all kinds of unsavory sources.

I also find it ironic that "westerner" in your world doesn't seem to include Norwegians ;-).

I recall seeing a documentary about the start of Silicon Valley, where a lot of the early money came from Rockefeller and other "east coast" money. Does that mean that the current tech industry owes a debt to Standard Oil? Probably. Is it relevant? Probably not.

All economies were built on the back of dirty and polluting technology.