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World News

Religious organisations announce largest-ever divestment from fossil fuels

by Donna Birrell

72 faith institutions, including 37 from the UK, have announced their divestment from fossil fuels. It's the largest-ever joint divestment announcement by religious organisations and involves almost 2,000 churches in the UK and Ireland.

The global divestment comes from faith institutions with more than $4.2 billion of combined assets under management in Australia, Ireland, Italy, Kenya, Nepal, Peru, Ukraine, the UK, the United States and Zambia. 

Among those which have divested are the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland; the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church; the Presbyterian Church of Wales; the Presbyterian Church in Ireland; 15 Catholic dioceses in the UK and Ireland, including the Archdioceses of Glasgow, St Andrews & Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Southwark; the Church of England Dioceses of Truro and Sodor & Man and the Buddhist religious movement Soka Gakkai International - UK. 

It follows the recent call from Pope Francis and other faith leaders to global governments to address the 'unprecedented ecological crisis' ahead of the COP26 climate summit and calls from an international alliance of grassroots multi-faith activists who have called for an immediate end to all fossil fuel finance. 

James Buchanan is from the organisation Operation Noah which works to inspire action on climate change and which has been helping co-ordinate church divestment. He tells Premier more about what it means:

"We're really delighted and especially pleased to see so many UK organisations who have joined this announcement in calling for swift, urgent action on the climate crisis.

"This involves divesting or disinvesting, from fossil fuel producing companies. We're talking about companies such as BP and Shell and it is very true that churches and faith organisations are making this decision for ethical reasons, because fossil fuel companies are really contributing most to the climate crisis.

"There are often questions about the financial impact of making this sort of decision. But there's actually strong evidence that there's also good financial reason to divest from fossil fuels as well, because if we're going to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius, that means that investors in these companies, and that includes churches, risk being left with stranded assets. In other words, fossil fuel reserves that can't be burned. So actually, there's a big financial risk of holding investments in these companies. I think it's also for that reason, we're seeing an increasing number of churches making this decision."

Many UK Churches have fully divested from fossil fuel companies this year, including the Church of Scotland, the Church in Wales and the Baptist Union.

James Buchanan says that while this latest announcement is welcome, there are still many churches and denominations which need to commit to divesting from fossil fuels:

"This year, we've seen an increasing number of churches that have divested from fossil fuel companies. And we're now in a position where in the UK, all of the major church denominations have actually divested from fossil fuels. So far in the Church of England there are four dioceses (out of 42) that have announced their divestment and eight out of 22 dioceses in the Catholic Church of England and Wales which have divested.

"So things are really starting to move. A lot of debate is still going on about, whether it's better to divest from these companies or is it better to engage with them as shareholders? But I think increasingly, churches are saying that they're not happy with the progress that they're seeing from the fossil fuel industry." 


Bishop Bill Nolan, Bishop of Galloway and Lead Bishop on the Environment for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland, said: "The bishops decided that disinvestment would show that the status quo is not acceptable and further, that given the harm that the production and consumption of fossil fuels is causing to the environment and to populations in low income countries, it was not right to profit from investment in these companies. Disinvestment is a sign that justice demands that we must move away from fossil fuels."

David Palmer, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church, said: "The pace of change across the oil and gas sector has been inadequate and falls well below the targets set at COP21 in Paris. We hope that COP26 will refresh these targets and we look forward to joining other faith groups in Glasgow next month in calling for immediate action to address the climate emergency."

A full list of the 72 institutions divesting from fossil fuels and quotes from leaders can be found here.

Prayer ;
Dear Lord,
We stand humbly before You at this crucial moment for our planet.
We ask that those who are tasked with life-changing decisions will be guided by Your wisdom and grace.
We pray that we can all find the compassion and selflessness to care for Your creation and safeguard it for future generations.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.

Bishop Bill Nolan, Bishop of Galloway and Lead Bishop on the Environment for the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Scotland, said: 'The bishops decided that disinvestment would show that the status quo is not acceptable and further, that given the harm that the production and consumption of fossil fuels is causing to the environment and to populations in low income countries, it was not right to profit from investment in these companies. Disinvestment is a sign that justice demands that we must move away from fossil fuels.'

David Palmer, Chief Executive Officer of the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church, said: 'The pace of change across the oil and gas sector has been inadequate and falls well below the targets set at COP21 in Paris. We hope that COP26 will refresh these targets and we look forward to joining other faith groups in Glasgow next month in calling for immediate action to address the climate emergency.'

A full list of the 72 institutions divesting from fossil fuels and quotes from leaders can be found here October 2021 Global Divestment Announcement - List of Faith Institutions - Google Sheets

 

 

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