Fwd: [a-list] The Fossil Fuel Endgame Begins
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Charles Brown
Jan 16, 2015, 1:19:39 PM1/16/15
to marxism...@lists.riseup.net, marxist-debate
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From: Bill Totten <shim...@ashisuto.co.jp>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 9:07 AM
Subject: [a-list] The Fossil Fuel Endgame Begins
To: a-l...@lists.riseup.net
Melanie Mattauch
Ecologist (January 12 2015)
With eighty percent of the world's fossil fuel reserves 'unburnable'
if the world is to meet its climate targets, the divestment movement
is moving from strength to strength. As investor confidence in fossil
energy ebbs away, 2015 is where the endgame for a dying industry
begins.
On Global Divestment Day next month, thousands of people
everywhere will turn out to demand institutions do what is necessary
for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels.
2014 was the hottest year on record. It was also the year, the
industry that's driving the warming came under unprecedented fire. As
temperatures rise, so does the climate movement!
At the climate talks in Lima in December, politicians were for the
first time talking about a goal to phase out carbon emissions by
mid-century. That would mean the end of the fossil fuel industry as we
know it.
2015 is going to be critical for the climate. At the end of the year,
world leaders will gather in Paris to attempt once again to secure a
global climate deal.
Given their track record, they will not act in accordance with the
urgency of the climate crisis while the fossil fuel industry holds the
balance of power. Therefore, the climate movement will turn up the
heat to erode the industry's might.
Already, people all over are gearing up to confront dirty energy
projects, demand solutions and build pressure on decision makers. A
key effort that has helped to build renewed momentum on climate change
last year is the fossil fuel divestment campaign.
Removing the Fossil Fuel Industry's Social License to Operate
For decades, fossil fuel companies have successfully blocked political
action on climate change. These companies have five times more carbon
in their reserves than can be burnt to stay below the politically
agreed two degrees Celsius global warming.
In other words, eighty percent of their current reserves are
unburnable. For Europe, this translates into 89% of coal, 21% of oil,
and six percent of gas reserves, according to a study {1} published in
the scientific journal Nature last week {2}. Yet, fossil fuel
companies spend billions every year to discover and develop yet more
carbon.
Every institution that stops funding fossil fuel companies, is taking
an active step towards removing the industry's social acceptance and
consequently its political influence. It is therefore not just actual
divestment wins, the campaign aims to elevate the public debate
leading to a change in social norms.
In 2014, the number of institutional divestment commitments more than
doubled. High-ranking figures such as former archbishop Desmond Tutu,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim
got behind the campaign.
It is hard to believe that the divestment campaign kicked off only
just over a year ago in Europe. Since then campaigns urging local
authorities, universities, religious and other institutions have
popped up at a dizzying pace, adding up to 94 active campaigns
throughout the continent.
The European movement has already celebrated a number of big wins. The
University of Glasgow has become the first academic institution in
Europe to ditch its fossil fuel holdings. Boxtel in the Netherlands
and Orebro in Sweden are the first local authorities on the continent
to divest.
The Quakers in Britain and the Church of Sweden were among the first
faith-based organisations to lead the way, and the British Medical
Association has become the first medical organisation in the world to
ban investments in fossil fuels.
Making Fossil Fuels History
Besides the rapid pace with which the divestment movement is
spreading, it is its breadth and diversity that lend it its power.
Diversity is essential to achieving social change.
What started with student campaigns at US college campuses, now
encompasses a large variety of different groups of people. It is a
movement of citizens who do not want their pension money invested in
companies whose business model is based on undermining the very future
their pension is meant to safeguard.
It is doctors who are concerned about the health impacts of climate
change. It is people of faith who believe in our moral obligation to
care for creation. It is academics demanding their institution's
finances stop undermining its mission.
It is concerned citizens from all walks of life who believe in climate
justice, the stewardship role public institutions should play and in
doing what's right.
This first year has only been the start of the divestment movement in
Europe. The year ahead already holds big promises as campaigns build
their power to confront the power of the fossil fuel industry. The
movement is also gaining strength globally. The first divestment
campaigns have started in South Africa and the Pacific Islands.
On February 13 and 14, the global movement is going to show its
collective force. On Global Divestment Day {3}, thousands of people
everywhere will turn out to demand institutions do what is necessary
for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels.
Local authorities will come under pressure to walk their talk on
climate. New campaigns will be launched. University students will hold
flash-mobs, vigils, sit-ins and rallies calling upon their endowments
to invest in a liveable future.
Faith leaders and people living on the frontline of climate change
will band together to urge their communities to divest from climate
destruction. Individuals will close their accounts with banks
investing in climate chaos.
Fossil Fight-back Goes into a Tailspin
Of course the fossil fuel industry and its backers have also started
to fight back fiercely, dismissing the movement and attacking
divestment decisions.
Maybe it's just coincidence - but big fossil's attempt to dictate the
terms of the debate comes at a time when large parts of the energy
industry are in deep trouble owing to low energy prices {4}, with oil
sinking below $50 a barrel, and gas fast following suit.
High-cost 'unconventional' oil and gas - from shale fracking, tar
sands, the Arctic and deep water marine wells - is already a
loss-making proposition. One small Texas shale oil company went bust
only last week {5}. Many more will surely follow.
Of course prices could rise again - but the current financial
bloodbath that has overtaken fossil fuels will permanently spook
investors, who will no longer see fossil fuel investments as a
reliable cash cow, but as a hazardous proposition fraught with
financial risk.
As the fossil fuel industry throws more money at fossil fuel
expansion, the divestment movement too is turning up the volume.
And now, history is on our side. Investors are turning away from
fossil fuels in droves as fear of loss overtakes greed for profit, and
as the 'unburnable carbon' meme hits home with a resounding slam that
will reverberate through 2015, and beyond.
Links:
{1} http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2705209/leave_most_fossil_fuels_in_the_ground_or_fry.html
{2} http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html
{3} http://gofossilfree.org/divestment-day/
{4} http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2703420/environmentalists_oil_price_panic_reflects_their_own_existential_crisis.html
{5} http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/wbh-bankruptcy-idUSL1N0UN01Z20150108
_____
Melanie Mattauch is 350.org Europe Communications Coordinator. 350.org
is building a global climate movement and initiated the Fossil Free
campaign: http://gofossilfree.org/.
Action: Global Divestment Day, February 13th & 14th:
http://gofossilfree.org/divestment-day/.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2709491/2015_the_fossil_fuel_endgame_begins.html
https://billtotten.wordpress.com/
http://www.ashisuto.co.jp
From: Bill Totten <shim...@ashisuto.co.jp>
Date: Fri, Jan 16, 2015 at 9:07 AM
Subject: [a-list] The Fossil Fuel Endgame Begins
To: a-l...@lists.riseup.net
Melanie Mattauch
Ecologist (January 12 2015)
With eighty percent of the world's fossil fuel reserves 'unburnable'
if the world is to meet its climate targets, the divestment movement
is moving from strength to strength. As investor confidence in fossil
energy ebbs away, 2015 is where the endgame for a dying industry
begins.
On Global Divestment Day next month, thousands of people
everywhere will turn out to demand institutions do what is necessary
for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels.
2014 was the hottest year on record. It was also the year, the
industry that's driving the warming came under unprecedented fire. As
temperatures rise, so does the climate movement!
At the climate talks in Lima in December, politicians were for the
first time talking about a goal to phase out carbon emissions by
mid-century. That would mean the end of the fossil fuel industry as we
know it.
2015 is going to be critical for the climate. At the end of the year,
world leaders will gather in Paris to attempt once again to secure a
global climate deal.
Given their track record, they will not act in accordance with the
urgency of the climate crisis while the fossil fuel industry holds the
balance of power. Therefore, the climate movement will turn up the
heat to erode the industry's might.
Already, people all over are gearing up to confront dirty energy
projects, demand solutions and build pressure on decision makers. A
key effort that has helped to build renewed momentum on climate change
last year is the fossil fuel divestment campaign.
Removing the Fossil Fuel Industry's Social License to Operate
For decades, fossil fuel companies have successfully blocked political
action on climate change. These companies have five times more carbon
in their reserves than can be burnt to stay below the politically
agreed two degrees Celsius global warming.
In other words, eighty percent of their current reserves are
unburnable. For Europe, this translates into 89% of coal, 21% of oil,
and six percent of gas reserves, according to a study {1} published in
the scientific journal Nature last week {2}. Yet, fossil fuel
companies spend billions every year to discover and develop yet more
carbon.
Every institution that stops funding fossil fuel companies, is taking
an active step towards removing the industry's social acceptance and
consequently its political influence. It is therefore not just actual
divestment wins, the campaign aims to elevate the public debate
leading to a change in social norms.
In 2014, the number of institutional divestment commitments more than
doubled. High-ranking figures such as former archbishop Desmond Tutu,
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank president Jim Yong Kim
got behind the campaign.
It is hard to believe that the divestment campaign kicked off only
just over a year ago in Europe. Since then campaigns urging local
authorities, universities, religious and other institutions have
popped up at a dizzying pace, adding up to 94 active campaigns
throughout the continent.
The European movement has already celebrated a number of big wins. The
University of Glasgow has become the first academic institution in
Europe to ditch its fossil fuel holdings. Boxtel in the Netherlands
and Orebro in Sweden are the first local authorities on the continent
to divest.
The Quakers in Britain and the Church of Sweden were among the first
faith-based organisations to lead the way, and the British Medical
Association has become the first medical organisation in the world to
ban investments in fossil fuels.
Making Fossil Fuels History
Besides the rapid pace with which the divestment movement is
spreading, it is its breadth and diversity that lend it its power.
Diversity is essential to achieving social change.
What started with student campaigns at US college campuses, now
encompasses a large variety of different groups of people. It is a
movement of citizens who do not want their pension money invested in
companies whose business model is based on undermining the very future
their pension is meant to safeguard.
It is doctors who are concerned about the health impacts of climate
change. It is people of faith who believe in our moral obligation to
care for creation. It is academics demanding their institution's
finances stop undermining its mission.
It is concerned citizens from all walks of life who believe in climate
justice, the stewardship role public institutions should play and in
doing what's right.
This first year has only been the start of the divestment movement in
Europe. The year ahead already holds big promises as campaigns build
their power to confront the power of the fossil fuel industry. The
movement is also gaining strength globally. The first divestment
campaigns have started in South Africa and the Pacific Islands.
On February 13 and 14, the global movement is going to show its
collective force. On Global Divestment Day {3}, thousands of people
everywhere will turn out to demand institutions do what is necessary
for climate action by divesting from fossil fuels.
Local authorities will come under pressure to walk their talk on
climate. New campaigns will be launched. University students will hold
flash-mobs, vigils, sit-ins and rallies calling upon their endowments
to invest in a liveable future.
Faith leaders and people living on the frontline of climate change
will band together to urge their communities to divest from climate
destruction. Individuals will close their accounts with banks
investing in climate chaos.
Fossil Fight-back Goes into a Tailspin
Of course the fossil fuel industry and its backers have also started
to fight back fiercely, dismissing the movement and attacking
divestment decisions.
Maybe it's just coincidence - but big fossil's attempt to dictate the
terms of the debate comes at a time when large parts of the energy
industry are in deep trouble owing to low energy prices {4}, with oil
sinking below $50 a barrel, and gas fast following suit.
High-cost 'unconventional' oil and gas - from shale fracking, tar
sands, the Arctic and deep water marine wells - is already a
loss-making proposition. One small Texas shale oil company went bust
only last week {5}. Many more will surely follow.
Of course prices could rise again - but the current financial
bloodbath that has overtaken fossil fuels will permanently spook
investors, who will no longer see fossil fuel investments as a
reliable cash cow, but as a hazardous proposition fraught with
financial risk.
As the fossil fuel industry throws more money at fossil fuel
expansion, the divestment movement too is turning up the volume.
And now, history is on our side. Investors are turning away from
fossil fuels in droves as fear of loss overtakes greed for profit, and
as the 'unburnable carbon' meme hits home with a resounding slam that
will reverberate through 2015, and beyond.
Links:
{1} http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2705209/leave_most_fossil_fuels_in_the_ground_or_fry.html
{2} http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v517/n7533/full/nature14016.html
{3} http://gofossilfree.org/divestment-day/
{4} http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2703420/environmentalists_oil_price_panic_reflects_their_own_existential_crisis.html
{5} http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/08/wbh-bankruptcy-idUSL1N0UN01Z20150108
_____
Melanie Mattauch is 350.org Europe Communications Coordinator. 350.org
is building a global climate movement and initiated the Fossil Free
campaign: http://gofossilfree.org/.
Action: Global Divestment Day, February 13th & 14th:
http://gofossilfree.org/divestment-day/.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2709491/2015_the_fossil_fuel_endgame_begins.html
https://billtotten.wordpress.com/
http://www.ashisuto.co.jp
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