Divestment Outline Valerie Myntti July 5, 2022
Discussion
- A Brief History of Divestment Movements
Policy Objectives of FF Divestment
(Please Note: this is the longest section)
- The Arguments against FF Divestment
- The Nuts & Bolts of Personal Divesting
*We will break after each section for about 10 minutes to take comments/ questions.
What is Divestment?
Divestment is a socially responsible investing tactic to remove assets from an industry based on moral objections to its business practices.
What has the fossil fuel divestment movement achieved so far?
- Divestment changed the conversation around fossil fuel and its financing.
- Divestment has stigmatized fossil fuels as risky and toxic thereby reducing their financial desirability.
- Investors and bankers are now questioning the long-term financial viability of the FF sector.
- Norms around the acceptability of fossil fuels have changed, and today FF are seen by many negatively.
- Changing norms and stigmatization around FF coaxes governments to act by enacting legislation and to regulate FF companies.
- Divestment forced pension fund managers, and other huge institutional investment managers, to confront climate change.
- Banks– refusing to do business with FF companies—can now choke off that steady cash flow– reducing the supply of capital.
- Today divestment can be seen as a savvy and responsible business decision.
- Divestment challenges the political power of the fossil fuel industry.
- Divestment moves money away from dirty energy towards climate solutions.
How to Personally DIVEST?
Talk to the institutions in your life to see if they invest in FF.
These institutions will include your banks, credit card companies, your brokerage companies and investment advisors, the companies with whom you invest, the charitable organizations you support with donations, your pension fund and IRA, your insurance companies, your union, your faith organization, your prep schools & universities, your city and state governments.
Tell them you want your investments and donations to reflect your values.
You want to divest from any stocks or other investments in FF or its infrastructure. You wish to re-invest in green climate solutions.
You will not give philanthropic gifts to any organization (university, church, or other non-profit organization) that invests in FF or its infrastructure. You will not give another donation until they divest.
You will not bank in, or use credit cards from banks, that are invested in or finance FF operations/ transport/ infrastructure.
You will put your money in banks that do not invest in FF.
You will find an insurance companies that invests in fossil fuel-free companies.
You will apply pressure on your pension fund manager, your union, and your city & state governments to divest from investing in FF.
There are many online resources to help you do this.
Banks & Credit Card Companies
* See how your bank scores at Banking on Climate Chaos at https://www.bankingonclimatechaos.org
* Find a better bank at https://greenamerica.org/get-a-better-bank
* Determine what your bank or credit union does with your money at www.mightydeposits.com
* Find socially responsible credit cards from community development banks at
https://www.greenamerica.org/take-charge-your-card
Divest From FF Companies
*Identifies the top 100 coal and the top 100 oil & gas publicly-traded producers & reserve holders globally, ranked by the potential carbon emissions content of their reported reserves. This list is used by FF campaigns and individual divestors to divest.
https://fossilfreefunds.org/carbon-underground-200
*List of 100 top Greenhouse Polluters by the Political Economy Research Institute at
https://peri.umass.edu/greenhouse-100-polluters-index-current
Reinvest in Climate Solutions and Socially Responsible Stocks & Mutual Funds
*Check out The S & P Fossil Free Index that measures the performance of companies in
the S & P that do not invest in FF at
https://www.spglobal.com/spdji/en/indices/esg/sp-global-1200-fossil-fuel-free-index
*To better understand green & socially responsible investing check out https://www.greenamerica.org/socially-responsible-investing
https://www.sofi.com/learn/content/green-investing/
Sources
This talk is not based on original research, but is a synthesis of the many articles I have researched, read & used in preparation, including articles from:
Brookings Institution,
NPR,
Investopedia,
Yale Climate Connection,
Oxford Research Encyclopedia,
Science Policy Institute at the University of Sussex (UK),
Sustainable Development News,
London School of Economics,
University of California at Hastings Law Review,
Green America.org,
Global Citizen.org,
Pension Fund Divestment by Jeremy Brecker,
Climate Newsletter,
Mighty Deposits Guide,
NRDC,
Wall Street Journal,
350.org,
Forbes Magazine,
Inside Higher Ed,
The Guardian,
The New York Times,
Washington Post,
Harvard Crimson,
Vox,
Wired,
Scientific American,
Axios,
Schroders Executive Summary on Divestment,
Ethical Consumer.org,
What do We Owe the Future by William MacAskill,
Laudato Si Movement.org,
Operation Noah.org,
Ozy
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