Originally published on EdenKeeper<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Fossil Fuel Divestment (Part I: The Whys and Hows)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Moral imperative rests in our hands like a flag praying to be raised in the battle to restore our environment to life-sustaining condition. Systematic mortal damage is being intentionally inflicted by fossil fuel producers on our bodies, our properties, our homeland and our ways of life. As faithful recipients of our Creator\u2019s trust, religious communities have a moral imperative to defend against this merciless damage.<\/p>\n In the hypocritical quest for American independence from foreign oil, moral responsibility has been flagrantly suffocated by the corporate hand of greed. Our government has been rendered completely useless. Unburdened by legislative authority, fossil fuel producers likewise recognize no moral imperative to save our planet or our lives. Profit, not morals, drive their daily, deadly operations.<\/p>\n The United States is an energy giant. Energy number crunchers from\u00a0Bank of America<\/a>announced on the 4th of July, 2014, that the United States is now the biggest producer of both oil and natural gas, surpassing Saudi Arabia and Russia, with our daily output exceeding 11 million barrels in the first quarter. The U.S. became the largest producer of natural gas in 2010 and the second-largest coal producer, behind China.<\/p>\n Currently, the world\u2019s largest energy companies produce fossil fuel. The\u00a0top 200\u00a0<\/a>oil, gas, and coal companies control the majority of the world\u2019s remaining fossil fuel reserves. They have no interest in doing what science recognizes is necessary to\u00a0restrain global warming<\/a>\u00a0and stop fossil fuels from killing us.<\/p>\n Using scenarios and modeling from the\u00a0Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change<\/a>\u00a0report, there is growing scientific consensus that, without slowing carbon emissions, Earth\u2019s climate will warm by at least 3\u00b0 centigrade. The British Government\u2019s\u00a0Stern Report<\/a>\u00a0concludes that a 2-3 degree temperature increase \u201ccould leave 1\/6 of the world\u2019s population facing floods or droughts and reduce crop production in Africa enough to put several hundred million people at risk of starvation.\u201d<\/p>\n The potential\u00a0\u00a0implications<\/a>\u00a0of this change in temperature are severe. Such a rise may\u00a0result in rising sea level of 2-3 feet by 2100, and up to 10 feet by 2300. Hurricanes may continue to increase in intensity and frequency. As many as 2 billion people across Asia could\u00a0face the loss of irrigation and drinking water as the Himalayan ice sheet melts. Increasing areas of Earth are at risk to\u00a0see rainfall drop by up to 50% and be\u00a0\u201crendered essentially uninhabitable by drought and heat,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 and in the Amazon rainforest, a precious 10 percent of the entire world\u2019s oxygen supply, could be prone to an increase in fires.<\/p>\n And from all this disruption and turmoil, we can not ignore the untold hundreds of millions of climate refugees.<\/p>\n The urgency of the problem of climate change has led to a national campaign for fossil fuel divestment. Beginning on college campuses at the end of 2012, most campaigns are being loosely coordinated by\u00a0350.org<\/a>. Fossil fuel divestment campaigns are also spreading quickly to the faith community, with additional coordination being offered by\u00a0GreenFaith.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n Divestment is an interfaith practice we all can agree on. In the last hundred years we have witnessed Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, and Hindu communities divesting from such morally harmful industries as gambling, alcohol, tobacco, adult entertainment, weapons manufacturing, and more. Religious groups participated in major ways with divestment campaigns against companies operating in apartheid South Africa, leading to a successful change of government. One of the most powerful advocates for fossil fuel divestment today is Nobel Peace Prize winner and former South African Anglican Archbishop,\u00a0Desmond Tutu<\/a>, who recently called for an \u201canti-apartheid style boycott of the fossil fuel industry.\u201d<\/p>\n Religious groups consistently cite\u00a0three reasons<\/a>\u00a0for engaging in divestment, according to Rev. Fletcher Harper of Greenfaith.org:<\/p>\n Reason #1:\u00a0\u201cResponding to Intentional, Grave, Large-Scale Harm.\u201d<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Divestment represents a refusal to profit from activities irreconcilable with a fundamental religious mission and purpose.<\/p>\n Reason #2:\u00a0\u201cResponding to Intractable Resistance.\u201d<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Divestment is undertaken after multiple change efforts, including legislative, regulatory and shareholder advocacy, have failed.<\/p>\n Reason #3:\u00a0\u201cRedefining Society\u2019s Moral Code.\u201d<\/span><\/em>\u00a0Divestment is used to demonstrate the repugnance of, and delegitimize, targeted industries or governments. Significant positive social change often comes when a significant level of public negativity is aimed at the target of divestment.<\/p>\n The fossil fuel divestment movement intends to affect significant positive social change. Across the globe, colleges, universities, city government pension plans, nonprofit organizations and religious institutions are pulling their investments from fossil fuel companies profiting from wrecking the planet, and they are now investing in fossil free alternatives.<\/p>\n Recently in Geneva, Switzerland, the\u00a0World Council of Churches\u00a0<\/a>, representing around 590 million people in 150 countries, endorsed fossil fuel divestment; the\u00a0Unitarian Universalist<\/a>General Assembly and the\u00a0Presbyterian Church<\/a>\u00a0in the United States committed to divest; and\u00a0the\u00a0University of Dayton in Ohio<\/a>\u00a0became the first Catholic institution to join the campaign. The\u00a0Union Theological Seminary<\/a>\u00a0in the US also recently committed to divest its entire $108.4 million endowment from fossil fuels.<\/p>\n At the national level, the United Church of Christ in the US has endorsed divestment, and regionally, Lutheran, Quaker, Presbyterian, and Episcopal denominations have joined the effort. In New Zealand and Australia, the Anglican Church leads the way, with many local dioceses and the entire Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand, and Polynesia committing to divest from fossil fuels. The Church of Sweden, the Quakers, and\u00a0local churches<\/a>\u00a0in the UK have also joined the divestment movement.<\/p>\n According to\u00a0GoFossilFree.org,<\/a>\u00a0the foundational divestment pathway follows three core steps, with a fourth step for reinvestment strategy:<\/p>\n Divestment is not a quick process. Organizations interested in divestment should consult the Carbon Tracker top 200 as the first step to identify targets to take action against. Then they should freeze any new investments in the securities, whether stocks or bonds, of companies named in the top 200, as well as communicate immediately with all investment managers working in listed equities or fixed income, including hedge fund managers, to explain the\u00a0fossil free policy and require compliance with a \u201cno-buy\u201d list created from the Carbon Tracker 200. Managers handling separate accounts, not commingled with the assets of other clients, should implement a freeze and prepare sales immediately.<\/p>\n Divestment from commingled funds will probably take longer to untangle investments. Allowing a five-year time span for this is prudent to avoid sudden changes in the process of account management. Questions of risk are answered in a recent quantitative analysis by Patrick Geddes, chief investment officer of investment firm Aperio Group. Reviewing the application of a strict fossil fuel exclusion of the entire oil, gas, and fuel industry, Geddes found that the fossil fuel divestment impact on portfolio risk appears to be\u00a0\u201cvirtually risk free\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n Broad fossil fuel divestment includes not only equities but also corporate bonds. Many long term bonds have maturity dates extending decades into the future. These bonds could easily become toxic assets as market responses grow increasingly negative towards fossil fuel producers. The\u00a0carbon bubble<\/a>\u00a0surrounding fossil fuel investments is stretching thinner as climate change activism grows stronger, demanding to leave fossil fuel reserves in the ground.<\/p>\n The Carbon Tracker top 200, updated by\u00a0Fossil Free Indexes<\/a>\u00a0forms the basis of FFIUS, an index specifically excluding the global top 100 public coal and 100 public gas companies, ranked by reserves. The FFIUS tracks the S&P 500, and has been adopted as the official list by 350.org.<\/p>\n \u201cOur ultimate goal is to provide low-cost, broad market indexes that give every investor the opportunity to fight climate change and hedge against carbon bubble risk,\u201d\u00a0says Stuart Braman, founder of Fossil Free Indexes.<\/p>\nThe U.S. Is Now #1 in Oil and Gas Production, #2 In Coal<\/h3>\n
Untold Hundreds of Millions at Risk of Becoming Climate Refugees<\/h3>\n
Urgency Breeds Divestment<\/h3>\n
3 Main Reasons Faith Groups Engage in Divestment<\/h3>\n
The Roll Call of Religious Groups Pledging to Divest<\/h3>\n
The Foundational Pathway to Divestment Follows 3 Core Steps<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nInstitute a Fossil Free Policy Immediately<\/h3>\n
Total Fossil Fuel Divestment Is \u201cVirtually Risk Free\u201d<\/h3>\n
Time to Take Climate Change Mitigation into Our Own Hands<\/h3>\n