the divestment overview
For more details continue to:
Why divest from fossil fuels?
It's not really that complicated.
Scientific consensus says that we have already contributed 250
gigatons of CO2 to the atmosphere from fossil fuels, and can only
afford to risk – at most – another 565 gigatons. The industry
already has reserves that would produce 2,795 gigatons of CO2.
That
does not include unconventional sources like tar sands, oil shale
and
methane hydrates. Failing to stop using fossil fuel before
producing 565 gigatons more CO2 risks our ecosystem.
Divestment is a way to make a
statement
about this situation, which is both a moral/ethical issue and a
financial issue.
-
From a moral/ethical standpoint,
we want to take away approval of companies that say they will
gladly sell all available reserves. “Unconventional”, or
“extreme” extraction not only adds to these available
reserves, but has side effects of poisoning earth and water
and air from the point of extraction. If enough institutions
with endowments and other investors pick up the banner of
divestment, that will be a clear signal that this needs to
stop. It is a tactic that worked on apartheid in South Africa
and should have similar effects with this issue.
-
From a financial standpoint, the
stated values of fossil fuel stocks assume their reserves are
available for sale. This is either false or disastrous. As
more and more corporations, foundations, educational
institutions, etc., recognize either the false evaluation, or
the moral problem of the investment and sell, the price of
fossil fuel stocks will drop, leading to a “last man out, most
money lost” phenomenon which could have a very negative effect
on the College's endowment. Indeed, over recent months some
sources indicate that fossil fuel stocks are already beginning
to be outperformed by other sectors of the market, including
green energy. According to NRDC Switchboard, Divestment
outperforms conventional portfolios for the past 5 years ( http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/plehner/divestment_outperforms_convent.html
)
|
For more details continue to: