Photo: Joe Brusky/flickr/cc
College administrators take note: the global movement to divest from fossil fuels is growing—and faster than ever. Marking the movement’s remarkable success, a report from last month shows the value of funds controlled by individuals and institutions who have vowed to dump their fossil fuels assets now surpasses $5 trillion. California students are now waiting for their administrators to be leaders in divestment by fully divesting from fossil fuels as their New Year’s resolution.
California students also are joining the nationwide Day of Action on January 23rd in the first 100 hours after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration. Students are calling on their campuses to resist and reject the incoming Trump administration’s climate denial by divesting from the fossil fuel industry and reinvesting in solutions to the climate crisis. You can find an action near you to attend or sign up to hold a new one on this website.
The global movement to divest from fossil fuels has already doubled in size since September 2015, according to the third annual Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement report from Arabella Advisors. This report, released by the Divest-Invest network, comes exactly one year after world governments reached the Paris agreement on climate change. That agreement, the report says, “bolstered the economic arguments underpinning divestment, validating it as a key tool for achieving the agreements goals.”
Global commitments to divest have reached 688 institutions across 76 countries, representing $5 trillion in assets under management. 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.
May Boeve, 350.org Executive Director, declared: “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.
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 May 5-13.