As governments fail to take bold action to confront the climate crisis and fossil fuel expansion continues at an ever increasing pace, it’s time for us to take matters into our own hands. Last September hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets as part of the People’s Climate March and global mobilization making history with our collective demand for climate action.
Worldwide people are standing up to the interests of the fossil fuel industry knowing they are the biggest obstacle to tackling the climate crisis. The fossil fuel industry has our political process in shackles with its financial might. But we are matching their financial might with a different kind of power. The power that comes from movements and the movement of the moment is divestment. Through divestment, we are directly challenging the social license of these corporations who have become rogue entities seeking profits at the expense of people and planet. And we need as many forces in society as possible to collectively say these companies are rogue companies.
The divestment campaign highlights a conflict that most politicians are reluctant to address. If the world is to avoid catastrophic global warming, most known fossil fuel resources need to stay in the ground. Yet fossil fuel companies not only plan to extract and sell their existing reserves but are exploring ever more sensitive territory to find new ones, thus ruining any chance of securing a safe planet.
This is why we need you to join the growing divestment movement as thousands come together on February 13-14 for Global Divestment Day to take action and demand institutions and individuals do what is necessary for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels. On Global Divestment Day we will move our public money out of fossil fuels and call on others to do the same. Together we will directly challenge the social license of the fossil fuel industry and break the climate deadlock before it’s too late. Together, we will begin to make fossil fuels history.
At the end of 2015, world leaders will gather in Paris to attempt once again to secure a global climate deal. But we know that they won’t act in accordance with the urgency of the climate crisis while the fossil fuel industry holds the balance of power.
We also know governments continue to subsidize billions of dollars to oil, gas and coal companies to explore new reserves despite strong scientific and financial advice that fossil fuels should be left buried. Since 2012, 181 institutions and local governments and 656 individuals representing over $50 billion in assets have pledged to divest from fossil fuels.
The fossil fuel divestment movement is growing faster than any previous divestment campaign in history. It is sparking international action in financial centers, parliaments, churches, universities, municipalities and investment banks around the world. Most importantly, it’s shining a light upon the fossil fuel industry’s damaging plans to profit from the planet’s wreckage.
But to fight back these plans and have any chance of getting a global treaty which will address the climate crisis, this movement must continue to grow faster and stronger than ever before. We’re spreading Global Divestment Day across Friday and Saturday to take into account the huge diversity of target institutions and tactics that will be needed across the 5 different continents where divestment events are happening.
Choose the day that works best for you to register your local action – depending on your tactics and when it will make the most impact on your target and in the media in your country. For example, some institutional targets like university administration buildings might be closed on a Saturday and the decision-makers you need to hand in a large petition to in your local municipality may not be at work on Saturday.
On the other hand, big public rallies and vigils are more likely to be able to draw large crowds and garner media attention on a Saturday than during the working week.
Divestment isn’t primarily an economic strategy, but a moral and political one. Just like in the struggle for Civil Rights here in America or the fight to end Apartheid in South Africa, the more we can make climate change a deeply moral issue, the more we will push society towards action. We need to make it clear that if it’s wrong to wreck the planet, than it’s also wrong to profit from that wreckage.
We want institutional leaders to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies, and divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years. 200 publicly-traded companies hold the vast majority of listed coal, oil and gas reserves. Those are the companies we’re asking our institutions to divest from. Our demands to these companies are simple, because they reflect the stark truth of climate science:
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They need immediately to stop exploring for new hydrocarbons.
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They need to stop lobbying in Washington and other world capitals to preserve their special breaks.
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Most importantly, they need to pledge to keep 80% of their current reserves underground forever.
It’s time to go right at the root of the problem–the fossil fuel companies themselves–and make sure they hear us in terms they might understand, like their share price.
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