INSTITUTIONS WORTH $3.4 TRILLION HAVE PULLED INVESTMENTS OUT OF FOSSIL FUELS

Leonardo DiCaprio joined a number of high-profile institutions and individuals committed to divest from fossil fuels, including Rockefeller Brothers Fund, CalPERS and CalSTRS, Norway’s KLP pension fund, and others managing a combined $3.4 trillion in assets.

That’s a 68-fold increase from the cumulative total a year ago, $50 billion, as environmental groups increased pressure on universities, insurance companies and individual investors to abandon stocks tied to coal, oil, and gas, according to a report released by Arabella Advisors.

The surge in support for the divestment movement shows growing awareness of the role fossil fuels play in climate change, and growing concern among the general public.

“You don’t go from $50 billion to $3.4 trillion in commitments without attracting a little attention,” Tom Van Dyck, managing director for socially responsible investment at Royal Bank of Canada, said by phone. “More and more investors are looking at the risks of not getting away from fossil fuels.”


Bill McKibben, of the 350.org climate campaign that started the divestment movement, said: “In the hottest year we’ve ever measured on our planet, big institutions and organizations are finally stepping up to say, ‘we won’t participate in this charade, and we will stand up to the fossil fuel companies that are causing it.’ A 68-fold increase is a sign that civil society is finally fully on the move in the battle against climate change.”
Scientists agree that most existing coal, oil and gas reserves must remain in the ground if global warming is to be kept below the internationally-agreed danger limit of 2 degrees Celsius. This means that, if action on climate change is successful, the vast majority of fossil fuels will be unburnable and the companies owning those reserves could crash in value. Many coal companies have already seen their share prices crash as limits on carbon emissions get stricter.

The World Bank, along with analysts at Citigroup, HSBC, Mercer and the Carbon Tracker Initiative, have all warned of the financial risk climate action poses to fossil fuel investments.

“Investors are reading the writing on the wall and dramatically shifting capital away from fossil fuels,” the 350.org said in a statement. Investors “hope that their actions can push governments to follow suit.”


Thank you to our friends at Bloomberg for providing the original article below.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-02/fossil-fuel-divestment-tops-3-4-trillion-mark-activists-say

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