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  • Divest the University of Melbourne from fossil fuels
    Unless we act rapidly to curb global emissions, we face climate catastrophe within this century. If we are to stay below the 2 degree guardrail for global warming, 80% of current fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground. Despite this, the fossil fuel industry is committed to burning all of the coal, oil and gas in their reserves, and they continue to search for more. If their business plans go unchecked, we face a devastating future. At the same time, the fossil fuel industry funds climate denial, donates millions of dollars to politicians to get them on side, launches PR attacks on environmental campaigns and blocks legislation that would see us make the transition away from fossil fuels and towards renewable energy. Unless we can rein in the inordinate power and influence of this industry we don't stand a chance of getting real action on climate change. By taking their money out of fossil fuels, the University of Melbourne can loosen the tight grip these companies have over our political system and make room for legislation that is in line with the climate science. As Australia's no. 1 University, the University of Melbourne is well-placed to call the fossil fuel industry out for their roll in blocking action on climate, and pave the way for a just transition to renewables.
    4,165 of 5,000 Signatures
    Created by Fossil Free MU
  • Divest Greenwich Council From Fossil Fuel Investments
    The Greenwich Pension Fund has around £17 million invested directly in fossil fuel companies and more invested indirectly (i.e. commingled) [1]. Such investments carry a high degree of risk on ethical, financial and scientific grounds and the Pension Fund’s investments therefore expose the people of Greenwich to those risks. Hundreds of institutions around the globe have already committed to divesting more than £31 billion from fossil fuel companies, and the Greenwich Pension Fund can add significantly to this movement [2]. If global warming is to be limited to 2°C, a level already considered dangerous, up to 80% of known carbon reserves must be left in the ground [3]. Available evidence indicates that fossil fuel companies intend to burn enough reserves to push global warming far above 2°C, as they insist even on searching for further reserves, often in the globe’s most ecologically sensitive areas [4]. 2014 was the hottest year ever recorded and the 20 hottest years have all occurred since 1981, bringing increases in extreme weather events, flooding, droughts and other calamities [5, 6]. Fossil fuel companies have also been actively disruptive to political efforts at limiting global warming through intensive political lobbying and the funding of disinformation campaigns [7]. If it is wrong to continue to wreck the Earth’s climate, then it follows that it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. There are also increasing indications that the profitability of the fossil fuel industry will decrease significantly in coming years. If action is taken to limit global warming and a large degree of carbon reserves are left in the ground, shares in fossil fuel companies will drop significantly in value [8]. As such, pension funds currently investing in fossil fuels risk exposure to this 'carbon bubble', while there is already evidence that fossil fuel-free portfolios are capable of out-performing those including fossil fuel investments [9]. For in depth analyses of these and related risks, see: http://gofossilfree.org/frequently-asked-questions/ http://www.carbontracker.org/ http://www.theguardian.com/environment/fossil-fuel-divestment References: [1] http://greenwich.greenparty.org.uk/news/council-fossil-fuel-divestment.html [2] http://gofossilfree.org/commitments/ [3] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html [4] http://www.shell.com/global/future-energy/arctic/exploration-production.html [5] http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201412 [6] http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/climate-change-impacts/ [7] http://www.fossilfreemit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/FossilFreeMIT-Lobbying-Disinformation.pdf [8] http://www.carbontracker.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Unburnable-Carbon-Full-rev2-1.pdf [9] https://www.msci.com/resources/factsheets/index_fact_sheet/msci-acwi-ex-fossil-fuels-index-gbp-gross.pdf
    532 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Mark Horowitz
  • Carleton College: Go Fossil Free!
    Carleton College "is committed to being a good citizen of a more sustainable world," and a member of American College and University Presidents' Climate Commitment. Carleton was the first higher education institution in the country to install a wind turbine in 2004, and built a second in 2011. Solar arrays adorn a residence hall. And yet despite commendable efforts such as these, climate change is accelerating. This fossil-fuel divestment opportunity provides one more opportunity for Carleton to take action against climate change. We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in this last year alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50bn in damages. Experts agree that global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels will continue to accelerate and intensify these tragic climate disasters. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years. As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on Carleton College to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds. We believe such action on behalf of Carleton College will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the wellbeing of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos.
    586 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Brett Smith
  • Fossil Free Warwick University
    If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. Too many UK universities support the fossil fuel industry directly through their research, their endowments and investments and their partnerships with some of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world like BP and Shell. UK students have decided to take on the fossil fuel industry by getting our universities to go Fossil Free. People & Planet is joining forces with the 350.org campaign that has been sweeping across North American campuses. We believe that our educational institutions should serve the public good and live up to their promises to tackle climate change. No UK university in their right mind would accept funding from or invest their funds in tobacco companies these days - it’s inconsistent with their research on cancer. The same holds true for fossil fuel companies causing climate change and yet most universities still do not recognise this. That’s about to change! 200 publicly-traded companies hold the vast majority of the world’s proven coal, oil and gas reserves. Those are the companies we’ll be asking our institutions to break their links with. Together they hold five times more carbon in their fossil fuel reserves than we can safely afford to burn to stop runaway climate change. It’s that simple…if you do the maths. From Canada’s dirty tar sands to Arctic drilling and hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) for shale gas - the fossil fuel industry is scraping the bottom of the barrel and causing huge environmental and human devastation in the process. Withdrawing our institutions’ financial and moral backing for this climate-wrecking industry is crucial to tackling climate change.
    1,472 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Phoebe Cullingworth
  • Divest the City of Beaverton from Fossil Fuels and Nuclear Power!
    Our local government has a responsibility to divest from an industry that’s destroying our future. We can reinvest in solutions to climate change! For more about my work on Climate Change as I prepare to become a Bar Mitzvah please visit: yitzchakadin.wordpress.com. We can not count on action by the federal government. We as individuals, citizens, and members of other organizations need to act also. Extreme weather events are overwhelming local budgets across our country. Nuclear power is no better--not only is it nuclear (and therefore terrible, which should be obvious)--fossil fuels are used heavily in its production and in attempts to minimize the hazard of storing nuclear waste. 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. The bottom line is this: divestment is the only moral choice for governments that care about their citizens. Solving the climate crisis is the only practical choice for governments that care about their solvency. It's time to divest from fossil fuels and nuclear power now!
    531 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Pam and Rob and Miko and Isaac Vergun
  • Front Range Community College: Go Fossil Free!
    Climate change is accelerating. We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in this last year alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50bn in damages. Experts agree that global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels will continue to accelerate and intensify these tragic climate disasters. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years. As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on Front Range Community College to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds. We believe such action on behalf of Front Range Community College will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the wellbeing of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos.
    14 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Stephanie Chrisley
  • Divest Antioch University from Fossil Fuels
    Climate change is an environmental and human rights crisis that demands bold action. We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently. The effects of climate change disproportionately affect lower income and marginalized communities, often exacerbating already existing social injustices. Almost every government in the world has agreed through the 2009 Copenhagen Accord that any warming above a 2°C (3.6°F) rise would be unsafe, and that humans can only pour about 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere to maintain this. Based on current emissions, we will emit those 565 gigatons in a little over 15 years. Fossil-fuel companies possess proven fossil fuel reserves that would release approximately 2,795 gigatons of CO2 if they are burned, which is five times the "safe" amount. Warming in excess of the "safe" amount will leave us a planet inconsistent with that on which human civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted. Fossil fuel companies not only plan on burning all of their reserves, but spend millions of dollars per day exploring for more fossil fuels. Their business model is incompatible with a liveable planet. Knowingly profiting from the creation and exacerbation of climate change runs counter to both AU's mission of advancing social, economic, and environmental justice and to the values of our learning community. Our investment choices all have real-world social, economic, and environmental justice consequences. Antioch University has an opportunity now to be a leader in shifting its endowment resources from fossil fuels to investments in an array of robust alternatives that advance our institutional mission, such as, community development, clean and renewable energy sources, and energy efficiency and conservation, among other public goods. It is time for Antioch University to invest in communities and the future, not climate change. see https://drive.google.com/a/antioch.edu/file/d/0BzvD7pr40Gt1RWdzVTJRYlBhVlk/view?usp=sharing for a full brief with citations on why AU should divest from fossil fuels.
    261 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Josh Lipkowitz
  • Fossil Free Berlin - Offener Brief
    Im Rahmen des Global Divestment Day und als Auftakt der städtischen Divestmentkampagne Berlin wurde der offene Brief von Klimawissenschaftlern, Politikern, Ärzten, Soziologen, Künstlern und Bürgern unterzeichnet. Alle Unterzeichner*innen und den gesamten Brief findest du hier: http://gofossilfree.org/de/divest-berlin-stadtkampagne/
    1,531 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Christine Langkamp
  • Lehigh University: Go Fossil Free!
    Climate change is accelerating. We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in this last year alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50bn in damages. Experts agree that global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels will continue to accelerate and intensify these tragic climate disasters. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years. As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on Lehigh University to 1. immediately freeze any new investment in companies responsible for the extraction, refinement, and processing of fossil fuels, and any companies whose sole purpose is to support these aforementioned companies 2. completely divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include public equities and corporate bonds associated with the companies mentioned above 3. increase investments in renewable energy companies We believe such action on behalf of Lehigh University will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the well-being of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos. Additionally, the aforementioned actions are in alignment with the university’s commitment to service to others as discussed in the mission statement; just as graduates “are expected to live by a set of mature cultural and personal values, accept the virtue of work as a vehicle of service”, we expect these same ideals to be reflected by our administration.
    330 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Laura Dobroski
  • UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL: DIVEST FROM THE FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY
    Investment in fossil fuel industries drives fossil fuel consumption and its negative environmental impacts. Burning coal, oil, and gas releases CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, both warming and polluting the planet. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if the status quo continues the planet could warm by almost 5oC by 2100 [2]. This would have a catastrophic impact on human life. It would turn our planet into one not “similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted”, as James Hansen, a top climate scientist at NASA put it [3]. The second reason is that investment in these companies gives implicit support to their activities. It is the moral duty of the University to withdraw its financial support for companies that actively contribute to global warming, the burden of which is being felt disproportionately by the world’s poorest countries, and which exacerbates global poverty. Divestment from fossil fuel firms will help remove fossil fuel companies’ social license to operate. The third reason is that investment in fossil fuel companies is illogical when set against the University’s environmental priorities. The Cabot Institute is committed to research surrounding the environment and climate change. Furthermore the university is pledging to become a net carbon neutral campus by 2030. It also has an annually reviewed environmental policy that states that, “protection of the environment is an integral part of good institutional practice” [4]. Besides its dangers, there are strong financial arguments for divestment. As the BP oil spill illustrated, fossil fuel companies operate in risky contexts that can not only damage environments and communities, but also shareholder value. Fossil fuel companies are at the mercy of regulations aimed at preventing climate change. Recent research has shown that, if regulators are serious about preventing climate change, a third of global oil reserves, half of all gas reserves, and over 80% of coal reserves will have to remain unburned to limit global warming to 2ºC [5][6]. This means fossil fuel firms would have to massively write down the value of assets on their balance sheets, leading to huge and sustained destruction in shareholder value. By divesting from fossil fuels, the University will join a long list of respected institutions already committed to going fossil free, including Stanford University, Glasgow University, Oxford CIty Council, the World Council of Churches, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The global divestment campaign is growing, and together we can make a statement about how we want our future to look. University of Bristol students and affiliates please provide student or university email addresses. [1] http://www.bristol.ac.uk/environment/bristol_european_green_capital_2015 [2] http://www.climatechange2013.org/images/report/WG1AR5_SPM_FINAL.pdf [3] http://benthamopen.com/openaccess.php?toascj/articles/V002/217TOASCJ.htm [4] http://www.bristol.ac.uk/environment/policy/env_policy.pdf [5] http://gofossilfree.org/uk/about-fossil-free/ [6] http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html
    2,348 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Rachel Simon