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  • Disinvest the Church of England from fossil fuels
    1. Climate change is becoming an ever more urgent issue, with increasingly severe impacts on our sisters and brothers around the world. Experts estimate that one person every second is displaced by climate or weather-related disasters. According to the Lancet, the number of weather-related disasters has increased by 46% since the year 2000. 2. Churches have a duty to ensure that their investments do not compromise the ethical position of their institutions. It is deeply uncomfortable for the Church to continue to invest in fossil fuels, which are causing the very harm it seeks to alleviate. 3. The Church of England invests more than £190 million in fossil fuel companies, despite the increasing financial risks of fossil fuel investments. A Carbon Tracker report published in 2017 found that five out of six major oil and gas companies were risking more than 30% of investments on projects that will never be pursued if global average temperature rises are limited to 2 degrees Celsius. 4. At Shell's AGM in May 2018, 95% of shareholders rejected a resolution calling on the company to set stronger emissions targets in line with the Paris Agreement goals. ExxonMobil blocked a resolution on climate change from being considered at its 2018 AGM. It is clear that engagement with fossil fuel companies isn't working. 5. The vast majority of known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground if we are to have any chance of meeting the Paris Agreement targets. The reserves in currently operating oil and gas fields alone would take the world beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. 6. The Church of England has made commitments to address climate change and reduce its overall carbon footprint. This commitment must be extended to how funds are invested. 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. For more information about Operation Noah's Bright Now campaign, please visit www.brightnow.org.uk
    6,778 of 7,000 Signatures
    Created by Operation Noah
  • Divest Cornwall
    Watch this brilliant one and half minute film explaining the petition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa8CBI-dltE Further background information: 195 nations have agreed (at COP21 in Paris, December 2015) that to increase global temperatures beyond 2 degrees celsius would be CATASTROPHIC. This means dramaticly cutting our our carbon emissions, and keeping most of the known fossil fuels in the ground - Watch this for the IMPERATIVENESS of the situation: "Do the Math" at http://math.350.org/ bear, and this "Al Gore, Why I am optimistic about Climate Change" at https://www.ted.com/talks/al_gore_the_case_for_optimism_on_climate_change for an injection of impetus! Quite apart from the moral imperative to look after the planet that is our home (and that of the children of all species - not just our own!) Fossil fuel investments are losing value, and, according to many analysts, are on the verge of haemoraging. The governor of the Bank Of England has suggested divesting from fossil fuels as a wise financial move, and the Rockefeller foundation - founded upon fossil fuels, recently announced that they are divesting. "The leading argument by financial analysts is that, with emerging regulation to curb global temperature increases and growing competition from low-carbon energy sources, there is a real risk of “stranded assets” and “unburnable carbon”. “Stranded assets“, as coined by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, refers to assets that lose their value or turn into liabilities before the end of their economic life cycle. Such an outcome is expected of much of the world’s fossil fuel reserves, a large percentage of which is said to be unburnable (over 80% of coal, 50% of gas and 30% of oil) if we are to stay within the 2°C globally agreed threshold." From: http://www.blog.clientearth.org/why-pension-fund-trustees-must-consider-climate-risk/ ______ To grasp the seriousness of the climate crisis, you just need to do a little maths: Fossil fuel corporations have 5 times more oil, coal and gas in known reserves than the most conservative climate scientists think is safe to burn. Therefore we have to keep at least 80% of their fossil fuels underground to keep the earth in anything resembling livable shape. Despite this fact, fossil fuel companies continue to explore for more fossil fuels because, with our current economic system, the amount of reserves they have determines their share value. This exploration is potentially devastating for the environments where it occurs - imagine the DeepWater Horizon disaster in the hostile and treacherous seas of the Arctic - a scenario the US government gives a 75% chance of occuring. or the total devastation of Canada's Tar sand fields in Lancashire... By selling off their shares in fossil fuel companies, large institutions, like Cornwall Council, can use their financial clout to prevent such exploration from occurring, and help to keep the "oil in the soil, and the coal in the hole" If you want more detail: at current levels of Carbon dioxide emission, we have less than 15 years before crossing a dangerous threshold (2 degree celsius rise in global temperature) that almost every government in the world has agreed would be unsafe. We humans have already raised the temperature .8°C with the carbon dioxide already emitted, and that has caused far more damage than most scientists expected. A third of summer sea ice in the Arctic is gone, the oceans are 30 percent more acidic, and since warm air holds more water vapor than cold, the climate dice are loaded for both devastating floods and drought. Scientists estimate that humans can pour roughly 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and still have some reasonable hope of staying below two degrees. Computer models calculate that even if we stopped increasing CO2 levels now, the temperature would still rise another 0.8 degrees above the 0.8 we’ve already warmed, which means that we’re already 3/4s of the way to the 2 degree limit. For much greater detail - see the film "Do the Math" at http://math.350.org/
    398 of 400 Signatures
    Created by David SmartKnight
  • Divest York from Fossil Fuels
    The University is failing in this commitment to not knowingly invest in companies whose practices pose a risk of harm to individuals or groups. The combustion of fossil fuels is responsible for 87% of all human carbon dioxide emissions which drastically contributes to anthropogenic climate change which in turn kills approximately 600,000 people yearly. As of last calculations, the University of York has £217000 invested in Fossil Fuels, and with 68 Universities already having pledged their commitment to divest from Fossil Fuels -including our rivals York St. John, it's about time the University of York did the same. The University of Edinburgh has divested over £6.3 million from fossil fuels, surely York can divest £217000.
    1,308 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by YUSU Environment
  • Divest Strathclyde Pension Fund from fossil fuel investments
    Fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - are the main drivers of climate change. In order to keep climate change at bay, we need to halt our extractions of fossil fuels, and must break our public institutions' financials ties with the fossil fuel industry. During the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21), in Paris in December, 2015, 196 Nations agreed to keep global warming well below 2°C and attempt to “limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees”. This is a turning point for the energy industry since fossil fuels will need to be phased out, and there needs to be a shift towards clean energy in order to achieve the target of zero net emissions by 2050. The outcome of the Paris agreement has thus drawn a critical line for the fossil fuel industry: to prevent a temperature rise over 2°C, 80 % of existing fossil fuel reserves MUST stay underground. Currently, Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) holds almost £20 billion in total investments, of which over £802 million are currently invested into the fossil fuel industry. [1] It delivers to over 222,0000 members and more than 180 organisations from 12 local authorities that are included in the former Strathclyde Area. The SPF has stated that their ‘"traditional approach to responsible investment has been, by and large, top-down - ensuring that environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) concerns in our portfolios are recognised and addressed". Yet, the fund is still deeply invested in the main drivers for climate change and social injustice. We call on SPF's immediate freeze of new investments into fossil fuel industries as well as divestment of all current holdings in it. By doing so, SPF would show their ethical and financial responsibility to their members and join 852 public institutions and councils across the world, including Derby, South Yorkshire and Oxford City Councils, Monmouthshire County Council, the City of New York, the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, UWS and Glasgow Caledonian, The British Medical Association and the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund. [2] As the environmentalist, Bill McGibbon, says: "If it’s wrong to wreck the planet, then it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage." Thank you for your support, and please share this petition to allow for more people to sign. [1] https://foe.scot/resource/councils-fuelling-fire/ [2] https://gofossilfree.org/divestment/commitments/ [3] https://gofossilfree.org/do-the-math-fossil-fuel-investments-add-up-to-climate-chaos/
    332 of 400 Signatures
    Created by Fossil Free Glasgow Picture
  • Newham Council, Divest from Fossil Fuels
    The London Borough of Newham has multiple investments in the fossil fuel industry. Fossil fuels contribute to the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Scientists agree that we must reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere in order to halt excessive global warming. Climate change has already resulted in more instances of extreme weather, rising sea levels and melting ice glaciers. The Paris Climate agreement of 2015 committed to keeping the global temperature increase to below 2 degrees celsius (above pre-industrial levels). In order to honour this agreement, we must move the flow of finance away from fossil fuel industries, one of the highest contributors of carbon emissions. Taking money out of these companies will make it much more difficult for them to continue damaging the environment.
    407 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Louis Martin
  • PFZW: Zorg voor het klimaat - stop met fossiel!
    Klimaatverandering vormt een bedreiging voor ons en alle generaties na ons. Hittegolven en epidemieën vormen een toenemende bedreiging voor de volksgezondheid - wereldwijd, en toenemend ook in Nederland. Daarnaast zijn er directe gezondheidsrisico's van fossiele brandstoffen, zoals de uitstoot van fijnstof en andere luchtvervuiling door kolencentrales. Deze fossiele vervuiling heeft wereldwijd vele honderdduizenden vermijdbare doden tot gevolg. Als zorgsector dragen wij zorg voor de gezondheid van onze medemens - ongeacht wie dat is of waar die woont. De zorgsector moet daarom haar eigen verantwoordelijkheid nemen in het afwenden van de mondiale klimaatcrisis en het verbeteren van de luchtkwaliteit. Wij vinden het daarom van groot belang dat ons eigen pensioenfonds, Stichting Pensioenfonds Zorg & Welzijn niet langer investeert in de fossiele brandstoffen die aan de basis liggen van deze problemen. Stop met kolen, olie en gas - word 100% fossielvrij! Bij vragen kunt u een mail sturen naar: [email protected]
    2,669 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by josee van der Veer
  • Divest Tower Hamlets
    Tower Hamlets Council currently has an estimated £91,764,000 invested in fossil fuel companies. This represents 8.76% of their fund. Ethically, environmentally and economically, there is no justification for such holdings. These investments directly undermine Tower Hamlets' own commitment to 60% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020 [2] as they are directly fueling ever riskier, costlier forms of extraction, which no longer represent the relatively bankable return they have been historically as the fossil fuel energy market grows ever more volatile. Climate change is the greatest crisis humanity has ever faced. The 20 hottest years on record have all occurred since 1981 and 2014 was the hottest ever [3] with 2015 on course to take that unenviable title [4]. Higher average temperatures are directly linked to extreme weather events such as intensified heatwaves; longer more arid droughts; wilder forest fires; stronger, more frequent storms and the resultant flooding; and glacier melt has increased drastically, which not only means rising sea-levels but more of the suns rays being absorbed rather than reflected back, causing a further increase in temperatures. Climate change does not just manifest itself in these ever worsening weather patterns. A recent study [5] attributed the record 2007 - 2010 drought in Syria as a reason for farmers abandoning their land for the city, where their presence has been a major factor in the social unrest that led to the war that has ravaged the country ever since [6]. We now see this being played out in the form of the humanitarian and political crises with which Europe is now struggling to cope. Such events are only going to increase as our shared world becomes hotter and drier. National borders are meaningless in the face of hostile weather. Moreover, worsening levels of air pollution are now regarded as a major world killer [7]. In Tower Hamlets an estimated 138 people a year die as a result of air pollution [8]. At the core of all these problems is the burning of fossil fuels. Scientists have unanimously concluded that these changes are a consequence of human activity, arising from the burning of fossil fuels [9]. The fossil fuel industry have taken a threefold approach to this. Firstly, they have spent significant amounts of money to create a body of disruptive disinformation campaigns that undermine climate science in the minds of the general public [10]. Secondly, they have created a lobbying juggernaut to flatten any political efforts to limit global warming [11]. Thirdly, they have expanded their business practice to focus on ever riskier, costlier and ultimately more disastrous extraction methods such as fracking and deep-water drilling; the latter having led to the largest marine oil spill in history [12]. 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 [13]. 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 [14]. 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 'Do The Math' documentary: https://youtu.be/KuCGVwJIRd0 References [1] http://fossilfreeindexes.com/research/the-carbon-underground/ [2] http://www.towerhamlets.gov.uk/lgnl/environment_and_planning/sustainability/carbon_reduction.aspx [3] http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/summary-info/global/201412 [4] http://www.weather.com/news/climate/news/earth-warmest-january-may-2015 [5] http://www.pnas.org/content/112/11/3241 [6] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/03/150302-syria-war-climate-change-drought/ [7] http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2014/air-pollution/en/ [8] http://www.itv.com/news/london/2015-07-15/londons-toxic-air-how-is-your-london-borough-affected/ [9] http://www.ipcc.ch/pdf/assessment-report/ar4/syr/ar4_syr_spm.pdf [10] http://www.fossilfreemit.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/FossilFreeMIT-Lobbying-Disinformation.pdf [11] http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/25/fossil-fuel-firms-are-still-bankrolling-climate-denial-lobby-groups [12] http://www.britannica.com/event/Deepwater-Horizon-oil-spill-of-2010 [13] http://www.carbontracker.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Unburnable-Carbon-Full-rev2-1.pdf [14] https://www.msci.com/resources/factsheets/index_fact_sheet/msci-acwi-ex-fossil-fuels-index-gbp-gross.pdf
    1,143 of 2,000 Signatures
    Created by Patrick McFadden
  • Divest Imperial from Fossil Fuels
    Climate change has been described as the most serious challenge of our generation. Under the United Nations Copenhagen Accord, countries have agreed to limit warming to 2 degrees to prevent dangerous climate change. Moreover, investing in fossil fuels poses a serious financial risk. According to recent research led by Professor Lord Stern at LSE, two-thirds of current fossil fuels reserves are unburnable if climate change is to be kept to the globally-agreed limit of 2 degrees of warming [3]. In this regard, we call upon the Endowment Fund Board to issue explicit guidance to ensure the funds are divested away from fossil fuels, for the sake of current and future generations. References: [1] FOI Request [2] People & Planet, Platform, 350.org: http://peopleandplanet.org/dl/fossil-free/knowledge-power-report.pdf [3] Carbon Tracker Initiative Report (Carbon Tracker & The Grantham Research Institute, LSE) : http://www.carbontracker.org/wastedcapital
    2,080 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Tara Clarke
  • University of Liverpool: Divest from Fossil Fuels
    This is important because the University of Liverpool currently invests £12 million per year in the fossil fuel industry, which is 8% of their endowment. The time to reduce fossil fuel consumption is running out, and by not divesting, the University appears to be endorsing the actions of the fossil industry, and thereby failing to act on the issue of human-induced climate change. Climate change negatively affects the poorest most, and by not divesting from fossil fuels the University shows a callous disregard for the poorest populations and most vulnerable. The university is home to a leading institute for renewable energy research, yet they cannot actively be a world leader in green energy whilst funding the most polluting industry on earth. The students of this University clearly care about the environment and have created a movement within their Guild of Students to help implement a greener University (Green Guild). If this University wishes to abide by the active will of the student body, they will divest from this morally corrupt and ethically questionable industry without delay.
    201 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Joe Ferguson
  • KU Leuven Fossil Free
    {ENGLISH BELOW} Onze klimaattoekomst hangt af van een eenvoudige keuze. Ontginnen we alle gekende steenkool-, olie- en gasvoorraden ter wereld, dan blazen we genoeg CO2 de lucht in om onze planeet meerdere keren te laten overkoken. Laten we de meerderheid van die fossiele brandstoffen in de grond, dan maken we een goede kans om een leefbaar klimaat te behouden. Nu nog nieuwe steenkoolmijnen, olie- of gasvelden aansnijden is dus absolute waanzin wetende dat zelfs nu al mensen wereldwijd de gevolgen van klimaatverandering ondervinden. Sterker nog, als we de gevaarlijke grens van 1.5° opwarming niet willen overschrijden, zoals afgesproken in het wereldwijde Klimaatakkoord van Parijs, dan moeten zelfs fossiele mijnen en velden die nu actief zijn, vroegtijdig sluiten. Steeds meer universiteiten, stadsbesturen en pensioenfondsen van over de hele wereld investeren daarom niet langer in fossiele brandstofbedrijven. Daarmee nemen ze zowel een ethisch als economisch standpunt in en tonen ze zich voortrekker in de strijd voor een eerlijkere, gezondere en duurzamere samenleving. Onze KU Leuven kan haar rol als wetenschappelijke en maatschappelijke voortrekker daarbij niet ontkennen. Wij vragen nu dus dat onze universiteit zich ook aansluit bij die internationale Fossil Fuel Divestment beweging en haar bestaande fossiele beleggingen stopt. Fossiele brandstoffen horen in de grond! ENGLISH Our common climate future depends on a simple choice. If we dig up all known global coal, oil and gas reserves, we’ll blow enough CO2 into the atmosphere to boil the planet multiple times. If we choose to keep the majority of fossil fuels in the ground, we have a good shot at preserving a gentle climate. Opening up new coal mines, oil or gas fields at this stage is completely insane, knowing that people all over the world are already suffering from the consequences of climate change. Even more, if we want to keep the limit of a world only 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than in pre-industrial times in sight, as we globally agreed upon in the Paris Agreement, then fossil fuel mines and fields that are actively in use nowadays will have to close down earlier than planned. More and more universities, city councils and pension funds worldwide have stopped investing in fossil fuel companies. They are taking an ethical and economical stance and prove to be leaders in fighting for a more equal, healthy and sustainable society. Our KU Leuven cannot deny its role in this debate as a scientific and civil pioneer. We ask our university to join the international Fossil Fuel Divestment movement and to put an end to its existing fossil investments. Together we keep fossil fuels in the ground!
    2,253 of 3,000 Signatures
    Created by Gert-Jan Vanaken Picture