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Religious Institutions

  • Create a Jewish Fossil free Jewish Community
    Even as extreme weather events like Hurricane Sandy, floods, droughts and fires threaten to overwhelm local budgets, government action to solve the global climate crisis is all but stalled. We have the solutions, but we won’t see any political progress on the issue until we can weaken the power of the fossil fuel industry. Signatories to the Jewish Climate Covenant have agreed to take action across our communities to support global efforts to tackle climate change. We stand with those calling for strident and just global measures to limit global average temperatures to a 1.5 degree rise by the end of the century. To achieve this, we know that over 80% of fossil fuels must be kept in the ground. We hope such action will protect the poorest and those most vulnerable to the impacts of global environmental change. To that end we urge Jewish synagogues, charities and companies to adopt socially and environmentally responsible investment practices in line with the prophetic traditions of supporting the weak, protecting the land we live on and Tikkun Olam. This includes an investment portfolio that explicitly excludes fossil fuels . We have a responsibility to not profit from an industry that’s destroying our future, impoverishing people around the world and undermining the good work of Jewish people of faith around the world. The bottom line is this: moving money away from fossil fuels is the only moral choice for institutions that care about the planet and its residents. It's time we realise that action to prevent climate change is not an option, but a crucial part of our religious duty as Jews.
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    Created by Oil Vay
  • Disinvest the Church in Wales from fossil fuels
    1. Care for God’s creation is central to the Christian faith. There is a moral imperative for the Church and Christian community in the UK to take immediate and decisive action in response to the growing threat of human-induced climate change from the burning of fossil fuels. 2. The impact of human-induced climate change is already being experienced around the world, often affecting poorer communities most. The impacts, which are likely to increase, include reduced food security, drought, famine, severe flooding and extreme weather causing devastation, fires, heat-waves, disease and migration of populations. 3. The scientific consensus tells us that 80% of known fossil fuel reserves must not be burned but must remain in the ground, in order to keep the rise in average global temperature to below 2 degrees Celsius, the internationally agreed level to avoid catastrophic climate change. 4. The Church has a unique opportunity to demonstrate leadership on this issue and to influence the public debate on the ethics of continuing to invest in fossil fuels. 5. Increasing numbers of experts in the financial sector are warning of the increasing financial risk of investing in fossil fuels. The Church in Wales currently holds substantial investments in major fossil fuel companies. For more information about the campaign please see www.brightnow.org.uk
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    Created by Operation Noah
  • Divest the Church of Scotland from Fossil Fuels
    As Christians we have a commitment to justice for the poor who are already suffering the worst effects of climate change and have done little to cause it. More frequent and intense hurricanes and flooding, longer and more frequent droughts and sea-level rise is already a reality that millions face across the globe, especially in the developing world. Climate changing is having a negative impact of food security leading to famine and conflict. In addition to the thousands of fatalities caused by these climate disasters many more people are forced from their homes. We accept the science that climate change is being driven by human emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. We acknowledge that this is primarily caused by the burning of fossil fuels. We accept, as has been internationally agreed, global temperature rise is should be limited to less than 2.C to avert the worst impacts of climate change. The Fossil fuel companies have five times more coal, oil and gas in their reserves than we can safely burn and stay below 2.C global temperature rise. If no action is taken then these reserves will be burnt and the resulting climate change will be catastrophic. We must keep the oil in the soil, the coal in the hole and the gas beneath the grass. The church should take a moral stand and withdraw its investment from the fossil fuel industry. Through their contribution to climate change, oil spills, air pollution (causing thousands of deaths a year) and destruction of ecosystems the fossil fuel companies have lost their social license to operate.
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    Created by Benjamin Kurzman Picture
  • Divest Sydney Anglican Diocese from fossil fuels
    This is important because profiting from activities that harm our neighbours (especially those who have contributed least to the problem: the global poor, future generations and other species) is a breach of the Lord's command, dishonours the Creator and compromises our witness and mission.
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    Created by Byron Smith
  • Divest United Methodist Church from Fossil Fuels
    Investing in fossil fuels in this era, with what we know today is happening to our climate as the result of burning fossil fuels, makes us complicit in "destroying the global ecological balance that provides the life-support systems for the planet."*. If wrecking the climate is wrong, then profitting from that wreckage is unconscionable and certainly not consistent with Methodist or Christian values. *(Quote from Resolution # 1023, "Environmental Justice for a Sustainable Future" from the Book of Resolutions of the United Methodist Church).
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    Created by Rick Kehret Picture
  • Seek to Divest Luther Seminary from Fossil Fuel Companies
    As Luther Seminary has been facing a financial crisis these last months, our world has been entrenched in a global climate crisis. Half of the Arctic ice cap has melted, oceans have grown in acidity by 30 percent, and the frequency and severity of super-storms and droughts has risen. All of these mounting trends—and many more—seriously compromise the interdependent ecological systems that sustain life and civilization as we know it. These effects of climate change have already hurt vulnerable populations—and the poor will continue to suffer first and most. As a robust consensus of scientists has concluded, global climate change is caused by a wide range of human activities, with the burning of fossil fuels being by far the greatest contributing source. These two crises—Luther’s and the world’s—may seem to have nothing to do with one another. However, our own crisis gives us a unique opportunity to reevaluate our financial priorities and figure out how to invest our money in ways that serve the neighbor and reflect our calling as stewards of the earth. Earlier this year in The Christian Century, Bill McKibben issued a call to churches (and universities and other institutions) to divest from fossil fuel companies. Given the wealth and lobbying power of fossil fuel companies, it is very hard to make the systemic changes needed to move towards a more sustainable energy economy based on improving energy efficiency, decreasing fossil fuel consumption, and investing in renewable sources like sun and wind. However, these systemic political changes are needed if we are to stay below the 2-degree Celsius warming limit that world nations have agreed to. Right now, fossil fuel industries have five times as much fossil fuel in reserve as we can possibly burn to remain at or safely below this limit. McKibben, a climate activist, writer, and college professor, is also a Methodist Sunday school teacher and has written a book on the theology of Job. He and others have turned to people of faith to act as responsible stewards and leaders in the face of this crisis. The Massachusetts UCC conference has already passed a resolution calling for denomination-wide divestment. They write: “We can’t continue to profit from wrecking God’s creation—not through our pensions, not through our endowments, not by our personal investments. As Jesus said: ‘Where your treasure is, there is your heart also.’” As a seminary community rooted in the Lutheran tradition, we can also turn to Martin Luther’s writings about creation to inform our action. In his Large Catechism, Luther writes movingly of the first article of the creed—I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth: “Here much could be said if we were to describe how few people believe this article. We all pass over it; we hear it and recite it, but we neither see nor think about what the words command us to do. For if we believed it with our whole heart, we would also act accordingly, and not swagger about and boast and brag as if we had life, riches, power, honor, and such things of ourselves, as if we ourselves were to be feared and served. This is the way the wretched, perverse world acts, drowned in its blindness, misusing all the blessings and gifts of God solely for its own pride, greed, pleasure, and enjoyment, and never once turning to God to thank him or acknowledge him as Lord or Creator.” We hope that this petition is considered with prayers for creation and for Luther Seminary. Students from Voca: Gospel and Justice, a Luther student group that is sponsoring this petition, hopes to walk with the board and the seminary as this process continues. References: Bill McKibben, “Playing Offense,” The Christian Century, January 9, 2013, 26-29. Also accessible online: http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2012-12/playing-offense. You can read a copy of the UCC divestment resolution here: http://macucc.org/pages/detail/2563 Robert Kolb and Timothy J. Wengert, eds. The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2000).
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    Created by Martha Schwehn
  • Divest the Unitarian Universalist Association's Common Endowment Fund
    The Unitarian Universalist Association could be a leader in climate justice. Several other denominations have already or are preparing strong divestment statements. Please help us encourage the UUA to take the lead.
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    Created by Vincent Pawlowski Picture
  • Saint Joseph Health Fossil Fuel Divestment
    Fossil fuels threaten the future of our planet and pollute the air, causing hundreds of thousands of cases of childhood asthma and killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. The industry spends billions to prevent adoption of policies for clean energy and clean air. Hospitals and health systems should draw the line and refuse to profit from or lend their financial support for these destructive practices. Divestment by healing institutions helps develop the social consensus that this must stop and weaken the political power of Big Oil.
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    Created by Wendy Ring Picture
  • Divest Presbyterian Church from Fossil Fuels!
    Our church has a responsibility to divest from an industry that is destroying creation. The 183rd General Assembly of PC(USA) resolved that church investment is “an instrument of mission and includes social, theological and economic considerations.” Genesis 2 reminds us of our responsibility to “till and keep” the earth. God has a covenant with not only humanity but with every living creature. In Matthew, Jesus calls us to care for the “least of these”. Climate change has a disproportionate impact on those living in poverty and in the least developed countries. Therefore, we call the Presbyterian church to take a moral and prophetic stand for creation. Please join our campaign and support our Overture to the 221st General Assembly of the PC(USA) in June, 2014 to divest from fossil fuels.
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    Created by susan chamberlain
  • Divest the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Binghamton from Fossil Fuels
    Unless most of the known fossil fuel reserves are left in the ground, humanity faces certain catastrophe due to climate change. And yet, the business plan of fossil fuel companies is to extract all those reserves and even look for more. As such, their behavior is deeply immoral. Our congregation cares deeply about the future of our children and life on earth. It is important that our Endowment Fund investments reflect our values.
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    Created by Wes Ernsberger