Time To Refuel: More Cities Than Ever Are Divesting From Dirty Oil

It’s about a year and a half ago since I last wrote about the divestment movement. In the UK, municipalities of larger cities started to take notice from around 2014, when Oxford became the first British city to divest its assets away from fossil fuels. There has since been a wave of divestment commitments from major European cities, including Paris, Copenhagen, Berlin, Stockholm and Oslo.

I was pleased to read this article in Yes Magazine recently, outlining the progress that is being made in the US, where Donald Trump’s presidency has sparked a new wave of divestment activism.

Inspired by the Standing Rock Sioux and their powerful protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), grassroots groups across the country sprang up last year to carry on the work of Standing Rock by targeting the banks that finance extreme fossil fuel infrastructure.

The global financial and insurance industries are starting to recognise that fossil fuel investments don’t make moral or economic sense. And, as the author of this article points out, we can all play our part, whether it is by questioning what our local elected leaders do or where our own pensions or savings are invested:

“Divesting our personal and public wealth from the banks that enable the fossil fuel industry, combined with direct divestment and lawsuits, can help bring pressure on banks to stop funding risky, money-losing fossil fuel projects.”