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A press release from 350.org

The global movement to divest from fossil fuels has doubled in size since September 2015, according to the third annual Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement report from Arabella Advisors. The report, released today by the Divest-Invest network, comes exactly one year after world governments reached the Paris agreement on climate change.

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Global commitments to divest have reached 688 institutions across 76 countries, representing $5 trillion in assets under management.1 Notable announcements include Dublin’s Trinity College, 16 universities in the UK, the Islamic Society of North America, the American Public Health Association, and more.

“As we enter the final weeks of 2016, the hottest year in history, the success of the divestment movement is undeniable,” said May Boeve, 350.org Executive Director. “In the face of intensifying climate impacts, and regressive and anti-climate governments like the Trump administration, it’s more critical than ever that our institutions — especially at the local level — step up to break free from fossil fuel companies.”

What started as a campaign on university campuses in the United States has now become a mainstream, global movement permeating every sector of society. Divestment commitments and campaigns stem from all types of institutions: from universities and pension funds, to faith-based groups and health organizations, to the insurance sector and cultural institutions, and more.

Around the world, cultural institutions are taking leadership in the transition away from fossil fuels. The New York-based American Museum of Natural History responded to a campaign driven by scientists and activists calling for it to cut ties with fossil fuels, revealing it has reduced exposure of its $650 million endowment to coal, oil and gas, and is seeking portfolio managers who incorporate climate risk and prioritize renewables.

Five days ahead of the release of this report, campaigners with Divest Nobel released a letter signed by 17 Nobel laureates around the world, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, calling on the Nobel Foundation to act in Alfred Nobel’s will and divest from fossil fuels.  

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

Divestment: is it an effective tool to promote sustainable development?

Speakers at today’s press conference stressed the importance of divestment and climate action at the city and state level. Boeve announced that in just three days, on December 15, organizers with Divest New York will take action at a New York City pension board meeting calling on decision-makers to divest fully from fossil fuels and reinvest in a sustainable, local economy.

In October, the Diocese of Umuarama, which encompasses 45 parishes and about 490,000 inhabitants in Brazil, became the first Diocese, and the first institution in Latin America, to divest from fossil fuels.

“We cannot accommodate and continue allowing economic interests that seek exorbitant profits before the well being of people, to destroy biodiversity and ecosystems, nor continue dictating our energy model based on fossil fuels when we have so many other possibilities for clean, renewable energies,” said Dom Frei João Mamede Filho, Bishop of the Diocese of Umuarama, Brazil.

Today, several press events took place across the globe to showcase  this major milestone for the divestment movement. Notable speakers, such as former Executive VP of Mobil Lou Allstadt, Aine O’Gorman, a student representing recently-divested Trinity College of Dublin, and Mark Campanale of Carbon Tracker Initiative were featured at a video-press conference between New York City and London.

Campaigners in Cape Town held a press conference featuring, among others, the Anglican Church of South Africa who recently committed to divest. Coordinated events also took place in Tokyo, where organizers worked with Arabella Advisors to hold a media study session of the report. In Australia, faith groups hosted a webinar highlighting the moral imperative of fossil fuel divestment.

As the movement celebrates this tremendous milestone, it recognizes the increasingly urgent need for bold and swift action on the climate crisis.

“Fossil fuel divestment has become a mainstream $5 trillion movement because our institutions and society know that we need a rapid and just shift away from the fossil fuel economy,” said Yossi Cadan, 350.org Global Senior Divestment Campaigner. “But many institutions are moving far too slowly. That’s why we will take action around the world in May 2017 through global mobilisations to shine a spotlight on the impacts of the fossil fuel industry, and escalate the call for governments and institutions to divest.”

The Global Divestment Mobilisation for a fossil free world will take place between 5-13 of May, 2017

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article from gofossilfree.org

Citing the urgency of climate change, Nobel Prize winners and scientists have issued a letter calling on the Nobel Foundation to divest its $420 million endowment from fossil fuels. The letter coincides with the celebration of Nobel Days and the annual prize ceremonies.

Divest Nobel serve up oil and coal to Nobel nominees in Stockholm, November 2016
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The call from laureates and climate scientists cites the original intent of the Foundation – an organisational mission to recognize all that is good and innovative about humankind – to make the argument that the foundation cut ties with destructive fossil fuel companies.

Among the 14 laureates that signed the letter are atmospheric chemist Paul Josef Crutzen, physicist David Wineland and biologist Sir John Sulston, and several winners of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize including Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi, Yemeni women’s rights campaigner Tawakkol Karman and Argentinian human rights and peace activist Adolfo Pérez Esquivel. The letter has also been signed by eminent scientific contributors to the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

It’s hard to argue with Nobel Laureates who have made such incredible scientific discoveries, advanced human rights and helped foster peace and ends to major regional conflicts.

The laureates and scientists called on the Foundation to lead and set an example for the world, writing: “The Nobel Foundation has played a historic role in the struggle against climate change by recognising people who have highlighted and studied humankind’s impact on the climate. Today, in this time of urgent need, as we face a warming planet and strive to implement the Paris Agreement, we ask you to do more. Our educational and cultural institutions must do more than educate, they must be an example of a new pathway forward, free from the industries that have caused the most damage to our climate.”

Activists in Sweden, part of the Divest Nobel campaign, have already taken action by highlighting the links between the foundation’s investments and fossil fuel companies. Now with laureates and scientists joining the call, they hope the Foundation will be forced to listen – and act.

More than 600 institutions, foundations, universities and pension funds are already leading by committing to divest from destructive fossil fuel companies. Tell Nobel to join them and act on the message from laureates and scientists by adding your own name.

Sign the petition calling on Nobel Foundation to divest

(Thank you to Janet Hudgins, the CPNN reporter for this article)

Despite the vested interests of companies and governments, Can we make progress toward sustainable development?

Divestment: is it an effective tool to promote sustainable development?

. .. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT .. .

An article by Josh Hrala in Science Alert

As the world’s leading superpowers struggle to make the transition from fossil-based energy systems to more sustainable options, 47 of the world’s poorest nations have pledged to skip fossil fuels altogether and jump straight to using 100 percent renewable energy instead.

The ambitious goal was laid out by members of the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF) during the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference in Morocco last week, which discussed ways for countries to hit the targets set by the Paris Agreement late last year.

The idea, in a nutshell, is to have some of the world’s poorest countries skip from pre-industrialisation practices to renewables, allowing them to basically avoid the ‘messy part‘ in the middle where a need for more energy to support economic growth spurs fossil fuel use to dangerously high levels.

In economics, this sort of skipping is known as ‘leapfrogging’ and it occurs when a society skips a step of development that other countries have taken.

One of the best examples of this process is mobile phones in rural Africa.

In many African nations, people in remote areas ended up skipping the landline step, with only one land line per 33 people, and moved straight to mobile technology. Now one in 10 people have a cell phone – a transition that some have called a revolution.

Members of the CVF hope to perform the same kind of ‘leapfrogging’ with regards to energy.

The 47 members of the CVF – which includes nations like Bangladesh, Ethiopia, and Haiti – say they’ll “strive to meet 100 percent domestic renewable energy production as rapidly as possible, while working to end energy poverty and protect water and food security, taking into consideration national circumstances”.

The goal is to have all of these systems in place some time between 2030 and 2050, and the members have committed to presenting a detailed plan to the UN by 2020.

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Are we making progress in renewable energy?

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The announcement comes at a time when countries around the world are trying to come up with a way to uphold the Paris Agreement set at the end of last year, which aims to keep global temperature levels from rising 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

“The commitments made by the Climate Vulnerable Forum today are both impressive and inspirational,” EU climate commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told Matt McGrath from the BBC.

“They have once again shown their moral leadership in this process with real-world commitments to action. These countries are already living the terrifying reality of climate change today and their very existence is on the line. The EU stands with them and their commitment to greater ambition in the years ahead.”

While large, more economically powerful countries are applauding the efforts, members of the CVF are questioning why some of the world’s super-powers are so reluctant to change course to protect our shared planet.

“We don’t know what countries are still waiting for to move towards net carbon neutrality and 100 percent renewable energy,” Edgar Gutierrez, Costa Rica’s minister for the environment, told the BBC.

“All parties should start the transition, otherwise we will all suffer.”

Another worry is that the world’s richest countries will stop providing financial support for the Paris Agreement.

The US had pledged to contribute US$3 billion to the US$100 billion pool the agreement hopes to amass by 2020, but so far, it’s only pitched in US$500 million.

These funds are supposed to provide developing countries with the capital they need to get started in changing their infrastructure, but if the richest countries refuse to pay – a threat recently made by US President-elect Donald Trump – it could seriously hinder or destroy the goals set in Paris.

Only time will tell how the situation will play out, but it’s definitely a step forward for the 47 countries of the CVF, and hopefully it will spur on other countries to take the same action.