The Growing Push for Divestment
As Billy skillfully recounted, the third day of COP21 opened with conflict, as China and the European Union clashed over the potential formation of a contact group to discuss a previous high-level ministerial roundtable about the Kyoto Protocol. That plenary didn’t end with a consensus, with the chair finishing the session with the statement that the issue of creating a contact group should be discussed further. One of the press conferences that followed soon after, however, presented a much more unified front.
At 12:30pm Paris time (a bright and early 6:30am in Cambridge, MA), the Divest-Invest press conference began. Five panelists, from non-profit, political and academic backgrounds, discussed the current state of the divestment movement in front of a roomful of conference participants and two MIT undergrads watching the live stream in their dorm. May Boeve, the executive director of environmental organization 350.org, began the press conference with an announcement of recent support for divestment. In the weeks before COP21, 19 French cities endorsed divestment, followed soon afterwards by the French parliament adopting a resolution that urges local companies and investors to divest from fossil fuels. Boeve’s overarching argument was short and powerful: “if it’s wrong to cause climate change, it’s wrong to profit from causing climate change.”
The other four presenters each brought their own unique perspective, but they all followed Boeve’s opening remarks with additional statistics about the growth of the divestment movement and encouraging but forceful reminders that our global obligation is far from over. Stephen Heintz is the President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, one of the first and largest global investors to divest from fossil fuels. California state senator Kevin De León was one of the leaders of California’s recent decision to divest its public pension funds from coal. Pascal Canfin, the former French Minister for Development and soon to be the head of the french division of the World Wildlife Fund, has spoken and written a lot about the economic benefits of divesting from fossil fuels and financially supporting cleaner energies. Noelie Audi-Dor, easily the youngest of the group, was a student at the London School of Economics and president of the school’s divestment group. The university’s council recently announced plans to divest from their £97.2 million investments in coal and tar sands companies.
Overall, their message was one of excitement. The divestment movement is growing rapidly, in both size and scope. Just over a year ago, the global divestment campaign totalled roughly $50 billion in assets. Fourteen months later, between universities, cities, foundations, and more, over 500 institutions combining for greater than $3.4 trillion in assets have committed to divest. Repeatedly, the panelists congratulate the countless individuals who have been responsible for this accelerated growth: “this movement works because it’s powered by tens of thousands of individuals.” Some of these tens of thousands of individuals are pushing for divestment here at MIT as well. It’ll be interesting to see, in the wake of the COP21 proceedings and the worldwide growth of divestment, what happens here at MIT.
