(from 350.org)
If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, governments, and other organizations that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels.
We are an international network of campaigns and campaigners working toward fossil fuel divestment in our communities. While each campaign is independently run and may bring different emphases and asks depending on their local context, the majority of campaigns are asking institutions to:
- Immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies;
- Divest from direct ownership and any commingled funds that include fossil fuel public equities and corporate bonds within 5 years
Most campaigns use this list of the top 200 fossil fuel companies by reserves.
Fossil Free is a project of 350.org. Click here to contact members of our staff, or email us at hello[at]gofossilfree.org for general inquiries.
You can find divestment campaigns targeting the city, state or universities in NY here.
Divestment has taken place at some level at the New School and Syracuse University. There are also active divestment campaigns at Columbia University and at NYU
You can read more about what divestment is and how it has historically been used as a tactic for social change here.
Divestment is the opposite of an investment – it simply means getting rid of stocks, bonds, or investment funds that are unethical or morally ambiguous.
When you invest your money, you might buy stocks, bonds, or other investments that generate income for you. Universities (and colleges in the US), religious organizations, retirement funds, and other institutions put billions in these same kinds of investments to generate income to help them run. Fossil fuel investments are a risk for both investors and the planet, so we’re calling on institutions to divest from these companies.
There have been a handful of successful divestment campaigns in recent history, including those targeting violence in Darfur, tobacco advertising, and others, but the largest and most impactful one came to a head around the issue of South African Apartheid. By the mid-1980s, 155 campuses – including some of the most famous in the country – had divested from companies doing business in South Africa. 26 state governments, 22 counties, and 90 cities, including some of the nation’s biggest, took their money from multinationals that did business in the country. The South African divestment campaign helped break the back of the Apartheid government and usher in an era of democracy and equality.
Fossil fuel divestment takes the fossil fuel industry to task for its culpability in the climate crisis. By naming this industry’s singularly destructive influence — and by highlighting the moral dimensions of climate change — we hope that the fossil fuel divestment movement can help break the hold that the fossil fuel industry has on our economy and our governments.
The Climate Math
We can only burn 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide and stay below 2°C of warming — anything more than that risks catastrophe for life on earth. Fossil fuel corporations now have 2,795 gigatons in their coal, oil and gas reserves, five times the safe amount. These companies must keep 80% of their fossil fuels underground.
Making New York City’s Investments Fossil Free
Of all the institutions that ought to be looking out for the public good, surely our local and state governments are foremost among them. They have a responsibility to divest from an industry that’s destroying our future, and reinvest in solutions to climate change. Even as extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy threaten to overwhelm local budgets, federal inaction to solve this crisis is all but stalled. We have the solutions, but we won’t see any political progress on the issue until we can weaken the power of the fossil fuel industry.
The bottom line is this: divestment is the only moral choice for governments that care about their citizens. Solving the climate crisis is the only practical choice for governments that care about their solvency.
What are we asking for?
200 publicly held companies own the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves underground their stock prices and business plans depend on digging up and burning these reserves, which would lead to a 6-12 degree, or more, warmer future. It may not sound like a lot, but a global 6-12 degree rise in average temperate would make most of the planet uninhabitable.
If it’s wrong for these companies to wreck the planet, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage. We believe that educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels. We want New York City 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.
The NYC Pension Funds
The total NYC Pension Fund assets under management as of 2012 is $127,458,000,000 and includes the city’s cash balances, the Board of Education Retirement System (BERS), Employees’ Retirement System (NYCERS), Fire Department Pension Fund (Fire), Police Pension Fund (Police), and Teachers’ Retirement System (TRS) The Comptroller is the custodian and investment advisor to the Boards of the five Pension Funds, and therefore can exert powerful influence over the Boards on responsible investment issues.
For example, former Seattle Mayor Michael McGinn recently wrote in a public letter: “I have directed the City’s Finance Director, Glen Lee, that the City will not invest cash balances in fossil fuel companies in the future…. I have written to our pension system governing board to request that they refrain from investing in fossil fuel companies in the future, and begin exploring options for moving existing investments from fossil fuel companies. I will work with the City Council, City staff and the pension board on pursuing divestment in that portfolio.”
In the fal lof 2015, the Mayor proposed that the City pension funds be divested from coal and that a study be done to determine who the city could manage the climate risks from the pension investments. This process is underway. The City Comptroller has been opposed to divestment, instead favoring shareholder advocacy, but he came out in Dec. 2015 in favor of coal divestment.
The Financial Risks of Investing in Fossil Fuels
Stranded Assets: There are a few ways that coal, oil and gas reserves could become “stranded assets” basically, assets that have lost their value. The first way is if we limit global warming to 2 degrees through government regulation and cheap and abundant clean energy. If global warming is limited to 2 degrees, then this essentially means roughly 80% of fossil fuels have to stay in the ground, devaluing the coal, oil and gas reserves that these 200 companies have on the books.
On the other hand if there is no limit to how much fossil fuel we burn unabated and we head towards 6 degrees of warming, then vulnerable sectors will be affected. Agriculture, infrastructure, property and insurance sectors will suffer across asset classes. Hurricane Sandy caused $65 billion in damages alone, and wasn’t limited to the fossil fuel sector. 21st Century stranded assets could result due to extreme weather, crop production yields declining, acidifying oceans, health concerns and many other climate related drivers.
Shareholder Advocacy
Using the NYC comptroller’s clout, shareholders can and have moved companies to adopt more environmentally responsible practices. The comptroller should continue to lead shareholder advocacy campaigns with companies in a wide range of sectors to set greenhouse gas emission goals, improve energy efficiency across operations and source more renewable energy.
But, there is an inherent conflict of interest for investors to advocate that coal, oil and gas companies stop the production of fossil fuels given that it is their core business. Investors might persuade a coal company to put more protective linings in the land pits where it stores coal ash, but there is little rationale for investors to ask a company to stop pursuing the very activity that generates its revenues. So while shareholder advocacy remains an excellent vehicle for improving corporate sustainability in many areas, it is less effective as a tool for changing the overall orientation of industries whose business models depend on producing fossil fuels.
Fiduciary Responsibility
Being a fiduciary responsible for investing other peoples’ money means that you have a say in how investment risk is measured and recommendations implemented. There is significant latitude in the laws governing fiduciaries to encompass fossil fuel divestment. Adam Kanzer, managing director and general counsel of Domini Social Investments recently wrote: “First and foremost, fiduciaries must be dedicated to their beneficiaries’ financial goals. This requires a deep understanding of risk and opportunity, including those relating to “social issues” that affect consumer demand and the broader economy, or impose legal risks and operational costs (e.g., cleanup costs). The debate has moved on from the artificial, bifurcated view of reality that views the investment portfolio in isolation from the real world. A modern fiduciary must understand how the corporation affects the health of the systems upon which it depends for its long-term survival.”
Reinvestment
While we do not require that the city reinvest in specific areas, New York City could benefit from reinvesting funds into new building projects, energy efficiency, public transportation and other green infrastructure projects, all of which often have better returns than fossil fuel stocks and bonds.
For references and more information visit 350.org’s divestment campaign.