London-based financial services giant HSBC has announced that it will cease financing all new coal-fired power plants around the world with three exceptions — Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
A Denmark-based pension fund managing around $46 billion in assets has announced that it will now exclude 35 prominent oil and natural gas firms from its investment portfolio, according to recent reports.
Kat Taylor, Member of the Harvard University Board of Overseers, called for the University to divest from fossil fuels in a move she states “would not only take steps to address the existential crisis of our time, but it would allow the University to lead its peers, as few, if any, American universities thus far have taken this important moral stance.”
Italian insurance company Generali Group has announced that it will not only divest €2 billion worth of coal investments but will increase its green investments by €3.5 billion by 2020.
Recent findings bolster the case that, counterintuitively, divestment need not harm portfolio performance. One study found that portfolios which divest from fossil fuels and utilities and invest in clean energy perform better than those with fossil fuels and utilities.
The University of Edinburgh in Scotland has announced that it will completely divest from all investments in fossil fuels within three years in a move that goes a long way toward achieving the University’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
Episode 45 of Cleantech Talk is here! This episode covers Ferrari’s electric envy, California’s climate leadership, a “Dear Elon” letter, and Norway’s oil & gas expansion.
New York City has filed suit against 5 major oil companies asking them to pay to clean up the mess they have made. It also says its pension fund will sell off its shared in oil companies. Can you feel the gathering momentum?
Divestment has reached an all-time peak in 2017, with religious, higher education, wealth fund, and other institutions joining in to end the fossil fuel infrastructure and transition to 100% renewable energy for all.
The National Australia Bank, one of the country’s leading banks, announced this week that it will cease financing new thermal coal mining projects, becoming the first major bank in the country to make such a decision.
