act.350.org/sign/stockholm_divestera/

UK Universities, including our own BU, support the fossil fuel industry by investing £5.2 billion worth of their endowments in fossil fuel companies or through research and partnerships with companies like BP and Shell. Is a university not the place for educated minds, full of students and academics who understand the greater problems we face in society? Climate Change is THE BIGGEST problem society is facing – causing social, economic and environmental damage, and yet we aren’t doing enough about it! Which is why we need YOU! Join us, along with the ‘Fossil Free’ campaign and thousands of people worldwide, who are standing up to climate change and demand the divestment in fossil fuels and the investment in clean, renewable energy. Investing in fossil fuel companies that contribute to Climate Change is a bad investment!! Tell BU it's time for change.

If it’s wrong to fuel the climate crisis, it’s wrong for our institutions to profit from the companies fuelling the climate crisis. Fossil fuel companies’ current reserves of oil, coal and gas hold five times more carbon than the world’s atmosphere can safely handle. Their business plan will cause climate chaos for billions of us, yet UK universities still collectively invest £6.6billion in fossil fuel companies. Though from a different pool of money, that's the equivalent to £1, 804 per student! By divesting from fossil fuels we can secure a clean energy future for generations to come. It’s time to dump the fossil fuel industry. • The university is contradicting its commitments to tackling climate change by reducing fossil fuel consumption and promoting good energy practice, as stated in the ‘Environmental Sustainability Policy’, ‘energy policy statement’ and ‘Green Education Declaration’. • Newcastle University has an endowment of £55.2million including investments in fossil fuel companies BP and Royal Dutch Shell of £2,749,585 and £3,308,964 respectively. • BP and Shell are among the world’s top 10 largest fossil fuel companies, by proven carbon reserves, and that these reserves are well in excess of the amount of carbon that can be safely burned to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. • In April 2010, BP was responsible for an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico which released between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels of oil a day, covering thousands of square miles of ocean and causing devastating harm to sea life in the area. • Royal Dutch Shell have already commenced exploratory drilling in the Arctic and have expressed a keen interest in oil extraction in the area. Drilling in the Arctic could cause irreversible damage to the local and global ecosystem. • Six higher education institutions in the United States in addition to seventeen cities have already committed to divesting from fossil fuels for both moral and financial reasons. Glasgow University recently became the first UK university to commit to the Fossil Free campaign, followed by SOAS, Edinburgh and Warwick. • Ending investment in the fossil fuel industry provides an opportunity for re-investment in renewable energies – a route to a clean and healthy environment.

Begründung: Spätestens die Dürre dieses Sommers hat uns gezeigt, dass der Klimwandel mitten in Deutschland angekommen ist. Wir haben einen ersten Vorgeschmack bekommen, welchen Druck der Klimawandel auf unsere Landwirtschaft und Gesellschaft ausüben kann. Die extemen Unwetter häufen sich hierzulande genauso wie die "Jahrhundertstürme" an den Küsten Amerikas und Asiens. Allein für Deutschland rechnet die Münchener Rückversicherung bis 2050 mt 800 Milliarden Euro Klimafolgeschäden. Hunderte Millionen von Menschen in den Ländern des globalen Südens sehen das Land unter ihren Füßen durch die Ausbreitung der Wüsten und den Anstieg des Meeresspiegels bedroht. Die Weltbank beziffert die Anzahl der Klimaflüchtlinge bis 2050 mit 140 Millionen. Die internationale Staatengemeinschaft hat sich, um die katastrophalen Folgen eines noch gefährlicheren Klimawandels abzuwenden, 2015 in Paris verpflichtet, alles in ihrer Macht stehende zu unternehmen, um die Erderwärmung deutlich unter zwei Grad Celsius zu begrenzen. Die Ziele, die sich die Staaten allerdings auferlegt haben, führen uns auf einen Pfad, der bis 2100 eine Erwärmung um über 3 Grad Celsius bedeutet. Um die Klimakrise noch aufhalten zu können, müssen die Klimaschutzbemühungen der Staaten also deutlich verschärft werden. Der bestehende wissenschaftliche Konsens besagt, wenn wir den Temperaturanstieg unter 2°C halten wollen, müssen wir dafür sorgen, dass 80% der bekannten Vorkommen fossiler Brennstoffe unter der Erde bleiben. Erdöl-, Kohle- und Gaskonzerne verheizen aber weiterhin ohne Rücksicht auf unsere Lebensgrundlagen und auf zukünftie Generationen in alarmierendem Tempo die bestehenden Vorkommen und geben Milliarden aus, um noch mehr fossile Brennstoffe zu finden. Dabei schrecken sie auch nicht vor hochriskanten und umweltzerstörenden Methoden wie Fracking, Mountain Top Removal, Tagebau, Offshore Drilling und dem Abbau von Teersanden zurück. Daraus ziehen viele dem Gemeinwohl und der Gesellschaft verpflichtete Akteure, wie Städte Kommunden, Universitäten, Kirchen, Stiftungen und auch FInanzinstitute bereits Konsequenzen. Sie investieren nicht mehr in fossile Energien und in Unternehmen, die fossile Energieträger erschließen, abbauen oder verfeuern. Das ist der Grundgedanke von Fossil Free! In Deutschland haben sich unter anderem schon Göttingen, Münster, Berlin, Bremen und die Universitäten Göttingen und Münster dem Divestement angeschlossen. Es ist nun an der Zeit für die Stadt Heidelberg, den Aufruf der Brügermeister von London, Sadiq Khan, und New York, Bill de Blasio, zu hören und sich öffentlich und verbindlich zu einem klimafreundlichen Finanz- und Anlagemanagement zu bekennen. Mehr Informationen unter: https://fossilfreeheidelberg.stura.uni-heidelberg.de/

Our local authority has a duty to look out for the public good. Fossil fuels are in direct conflict with the public good: investing in them poses a risk both to investors and to the planet. Birmingham City Council should take a moral, political and economic stand against them by taking our money away from fossil fuel companies and putting it into investments that are less at risk from climate change legislation and more compatible with our values. Divestment from fossil fuels would make a powerful statement that the fossil fuel industry is morally and economically unviable, and that the people of Birmingham wish to support an alternative, sustainable energy future that will leave the planet in a shape that allows us, our children and grandchildren to live safely on it. Financial research has called into question the valuations of fossil fuel companies due to their reliance on reserves which may become unburnable if carbon legislation comes into effect.

The ACT has Australia's most ambitious targets for emissions cuts and growing the renewable energy of the future. So why on this threatened earth does it invest in the coal, gas and oil that undermines all its good work? It's a moral shame and a big financial risk. Canberrans expect more!