Divestment (fossil energies)

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Divestment from fossil energy companies ( English fossil fuel divestment ) is an area of disinvestment , which refers to companies whose business field is the extraction, processing and distribution of fossil fuels ( mineral oil , natural gas and coal industries ).

The climate is the main reason for initiatives for withdrawing investments from companies with activities in the production, processing or marketing of fossil fuels. Another motive is the reduction of damage to health as a result of the air pollution caused by the combustion of fossil fuels . Economic considerations can also play a role, such as: E.g. the fear that the shares of fossil fuel companies will lose value through the effect of a carbon bubble .

In the context of climate protection, a global social divestment movement emerged from around 2012, which calls for investments in fossil fuel companies to be withdrawn and, if possible, reinvestment in sustainable systems.

The divestment from fossil fuel companies will u. a. supported by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and the World Medical Association , as well as prominent personalities such as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon , US President Barack Obama , and Prince Charles . So far, numerous universities (including Stanford University ), cities (in Germany so far Münster , Berlin , Freiburg im Breisgau and Stuttgart ), insurance companies and pension funds (including the Norwegian pension fund , AXA and Allianz ), foundations (including the Rockefeller Foundation ) as well as other organizations (such as the British Medical Association and the Guardian Media Group ) and prominent individuals (including Leonardo DiCaprio ) decided to divest from fossil fuel companies. The whole movement can be attributed to ethical investment .

background

Global carbon emissions from fossil sources between 1800 and 2007
Increase in global average surface temperatures 1880–2016 (rel. To 1951–1980)
Some projections of the temperature development up to 2100 show that the two-degree target can only be met with great effort.

Global warming and carbon budget

The extraction, transport, processing and burning of fossil fuels emit greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane , which contribute significantly to global warming . In order to limit global warming to a maximum of 2 ° C compared to pre-industrial levels ( two-degree target ), according to the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU), only a maximum of 750 billion tons of CO 2 should be emitted - this was the available amount in 2014 Carbon budget .

The complete combustion of all proven fossil energy reserves, which are already in state and private ownership, would lead to a release of 2,795 billion tons of CO 2 . If one also includes hard-to-degrade or suspected fossil energy reserves, this value would be many times higher. According to an analysis from September 2016, the full exploitation of those mines and oil and gas fields that were already in operation at the time, with 942 billion tons of CO 2, significantly exceeded the budget. In order to meet the two-degree target, a large part of the known oil, natural gas and coal reserves must not be burned. According to a study published in 2015, around a third of the oil reserves known today , half of the natural gas reserves and more than 80% of the coal reserves are unlikely to be burned if the two-degree target is to be achieved with at least 50% probability.

According to the calculations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, annual investments in conventional electricity generation based on fossil fuels would have to decrease by around 30 (2–166) billion US dollars over the next twenty years, and at the same time annual investments in low-emission electricity generation by approx $ 150 (30-360) billion increase. The WBGU also points out the problem of path dependencies. The international energy agency had warned that “due to the long lifespan of capital investments, the point in time could soon be reached when the existing energy infrastructure already determines so many CO 2 emissions for the future that no new CO 2 -emitting power plants will be built are allowed if the 2 ° C guard rail is to be adhered to ".

So far, however, investments have been made in fossil fuels and government subsidies have been granted. Annual global energy investments were around $ 1,200 billion in 2014. In 2012, the 200 largest fossil fuel companies invested US $ 674 billion in the search for and development of new reserves; the sum of government subsidies for fossil energy amounted to US $ 544 billion according to a study by the International Energy Agency . This sum even amounts to 1,900 billion if "appropriate taxes for fossil fuels are taken as a benchmark, including consumption taxes and negative externalities of consumption (e.g. damage to health, environmental pollution, impact on the climate)". The abolition of these subsidies could lead to a reduction in CO 2 emissions of 13 percent. More recent studies from 2015 showed significantly higher values. According to the International Monetary Fund , the full social cost of energy production in 2013 was $ 4,900 billion, subsidizing the production of one tonne of carbon dioxide in the energy sector by more than $ 150 worldwide. About 60% of these costs were caused by burning coal.

Carbon bubble

Carbon bubble according to the calculations of the Carbon Tracker Initiative 2013

In its special report on climate protection as a global citizens' movement in 2014, the German Advisory Council on Global Change pointed out, among other things, the possible “bursting of the carbon bubble ”, which represents a financial risk for investors in fossil fuel companies. The demand to diminish by a binding fixed CO 2 - guardrail , the shares of these companies would lose value. Divestment could thus help investors consider the risks of a carbon bubble. If more shares from fossil fuel companies were withdrawn by key investors, this could “be an indicator of the future composition of the energy market”.

The Paris Agreement , in a series with the two-degree target, set the goal of "reconciling financial flows with a path to greenhouse gas-free and climate-resilient development" - and away of carbon-intensive investments.

Mark Carney , head of the Bank of England , said in a speech in September 2015 that a restriction on the extraction of carbon stocks in connection with the two-degree target means that a large part of the reserves, in whose development often billions have already flowed, " stranded assets ”. On the other hand, financing the decarbonisation of our economy is a great opportunity. This means a drastic reallocation of resources and a technological revolution, which goes hand in hand with a necessary increase in investments in long-term infrastructure by around four times. In order for this to be possible, the green economy can no longer be a niche interest in the medium term. Capital should be used in a way that reflects basic values, including externalities . A complete redeployment of all investments at once, however, carries the risk of destabilizing the market. He therefore advises foresight. The less one has to regret in retrospect.

Air pollution

Combustion of coal and oil leads, among other things, to the release of fine dust . According to a study by the World Health Organization , this has negative effects on health. Particulate matter reduces life expectancy in Europe alone by an average of one year. a. due to an increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases , as well as lung cancer .

Climate policy goals

The divestment movement ultimately aims to reduce and end coal / oil / natural gas production (and thus the burning of fossil fuels), which is also reflected in the widely used slogan "Keep it in the ground". : "Leave it in the ground"). Divestment is intended to force energy companies to refrain from extracting crude oil, coal and natural gas and, if necessary, to induce transformative change (e.g. switch to alternative forms of energy supply), which will lead to a drastic reduction in CO 2 emissions leads. Last but not least, divestment is intended to induce governments to enact appropriate laws, e.g. B. a ban on oil drilling or a CO 2 tax . In addition, divestment can "increase political pressure that current subsidies to fossil fuel companies are challenged and eventually reduced".

Expected mechanisms of action of divestment

Awareness of moral responsibility

A major concern of the divestment movement is to point out the role of fossil energy companies in global warming. The motto of the movement is accordingly "If it is wrong to destroy the climate, then it is certainly wrong to benefit from this destruction." (English: "If it's wrong to wreck the climate, then surely it's wrong to profit from." that wreckage ").

It is about investing responsibly in order to link actions with values. One cannot strive for a lifestyle without fossil energies and at the same time an increase in wealth through fossil energies, these are irreconcilable contradictions. Divestment remind us to put community interests above industry. On major moral issues, including climate change, educational institutions in particular have a duty not only to teach their students, but society as a whole as well.

From Noam Chomsky's point of view , divestment has a symbolic, educational effect. If you don't divest, you would convey to others that you don't consider climate protection important. This is like a request to the public not to worry and to keep “running towards the abyss”. Universities in particular, in terms of their reputation for being a center of science, understanding and moral integrity etc., should convey to the world that they consider climate protection to be very significant and important. In his view, divestment is one of many important steps that urgently need to be taken if humanity is to survive.

Christian Parenti wrote that individual political actions would create an “aura” that mobilized students and staged a political spectacle that led to a moral crisis. In his opinion, however, it is important that state measures emerge from this.

Stigma from fossil energy companies

According to an analysis by Oxford University in 2013, the main consequences of divestment are negative publicity, which could lead to a bad reputation for the company. For example, it is more difficult for stigmatized companies to find good employees, influence politics and, occasionally, raise capital. Ivo Welch suspected that in the case of apartheid, the isolation of the apartheid regime had an effect. The worldwide ostracism may have weighed heavily on President De Klerk .

According to Bill McKibben from 350.org , the goal is not to drive the companies into bankruptcy, this is not possible through divestment alone. But divestment could lead to the “political bankruptcy” of the companies and reduce their influence. It is therefore a matter of turning these companies into outsiders.

Forward-looking change in investment behavior

Future policy measures can lead investors to reassess their investment projects. Future policies will have an impact on profitability, especially in the case of investment alternatives with a long period of capital commitment, a high proportion of capital costs and high CO 2 emissions per added value . This is particularly the case with coal-fired power plants. In a model-based study it was shown that this mechanism can lead to reductions in global CO 2 emissions of 5–20% (compared to a case without any policy measures). The same study showed that the opposite effect of the “ Green Paradox ” is less significant. According to the Green Paradox hypothesis, owners of fossil fuels will evade future policy measures by reducing their raw material stocks more quickly and thus increasing overall CO 2 emissions. If politicians credibly announce future policy measures, the divestment away from fossil energy infrastructure will also have the desired effect of investing in facilities in the energy sector with lower emissions. Such a dynamic investment would also make it possible to counteract the formation of a carbon bubble.

Expected effects of divestment

A study by the Bank of England , based on a study by Oxford University, comes to the conclusion that the divestment movement has the potential to initiate changes in economic norms. In addition, current research from Cambridge University suggests that investment preferences - depending on the stock market sentiment in connection with expected climate risks - can change very quickly.

Arguments against divestment

From various quarters was noted that divestment expected to have any immediate impact on the stock market, and no real impact on supply and demand, ie Brown - and coal mining , oil drilling or - refining , will have. There are several reasons for this:

  • The majority of the shares are held by large institutional investors such as BlackRock or Fidelity Investments , who are unlikely to use their holdings for a social or moral agenda.
  • Finance economist Ivo Welch estimates that even if Stanford University sold off all of its $ 19 billion worth of shares (a fraction of the world's capital assets of about $ 60 trillion), it would probably take less than an hour would until the market absorbed those shares. This would hardly induce the managers of the companies concerned to examine their consciences and even less to change the operation. Even if all universities were to divest, it would only represent a small proportion of the world's capital. And even if the divestment leads to a fall in share prices, there are enough other investors who buy up the now cheaper shares.
  • Sociologist and journalist Christian Parenti wrote in January 2013 that divestment could not harm oil and gas companies because they make their profits by extracting and selling oil rather than selling stocks. In addition, some of the largest CO 2 emitters would not sell any shares at all. Koch Industries, for example, is privately owned. In addition, around three quarters of the oil reserves are in state hands.

In addition, previous experience tends to speak against the greater financial impact of divestment:

  • According to his information, a study by Welch has shown that even in the case of apartheid, the divestment had no short- or long-term effect on the value of the companies concerned, not even on the South African currency, the stock market and the local economy.
  • The number of institutions willing to undertake divestment was estimated to be rather low in the analysis by the University of Oxford. In the three decades of the divestment campaign against the tobacco industry, only about 80 organizations and funds sold their shares.
  • In the case of coal, share prices have fallen because of the extraction of shale gas and cheap natural gas, not divestment.

A study by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy examined the influence of the divestment movement on strategic decisions of the four largest energy companies in Germany ( E.ON , RWE , Vattenfall , EnBW ) and came to the conclusion that so far electricity prices , company ownership , Government actions and domestic energy sources had a greater impact. However, the authors assume that political decisions and strong civic engagement will play a greater role in the future.

In the case of climate change, according to Ivo Welch, the problem is that the energy demand cannot currently be covered by other energy sources. In addition, the alternatives (e.g. nuclear energy, hydropower) are not necessarily better for the environment and society. There are better options than divestment for universities like Stanford. In reverse to the “runaway strategy” of divestment, you could buy up many shares in polluting companies and use this position to bring about changes in company policy (“influence strategy”). Second, by investing in research, technology development and marketing, they could help make other forms of energy cheaper than fossil fuels.

Robert Stavins, director of the environmental economics program at Harvard Kennedy School , also pointed out that the problem is primarily an economy that is dependent on the production and consumption of fossil fuels. While the production of "clean" energy is still growing, the economy of tomorrow will be paralyzed without fossil fuels. In addition, the divestment movement is focusing on Western companies, while India and China continue to mine and burn large amounts of fossil fuels. Frank Wolak, director of the energy and sustainable development program at Stanford University, believes that divestment is displacing more meaningful actions. Divestment will do nothing to reduce greenhouse gases, nor will it deter oil and coal companies from acquiring capital. A more effective measure would be CO 2 pricing through a CO 2 tax or the cap-and-trade system .

In some cases, fiduciary responsibility can tie investors' hands. While there are few legal hurdles for individuals, banks and insurance companies in the USA, Canada, Great Britain and Australia, the situation is more difficult for trusts that manage assets for the benefit of third parties. Trusts, such as endowment funds and some pension funds, usually have to demonstrate that the divestment is in the best interest of the beneficiary or the purpose, whereby the financial interest plays a primary role. A report commissioned and endorsed by the United Nations Environment Program states that the consideration of environmental criteria - such as climate impacts - is one of the fiduciary duties of institutional investors, as such aspects can also influence the risk of investments. Investors should prefer investments that are consistent with sustainable development.

Divestment activists, it was alleged, were using products that use fossil fuels themselves. They are therefore hypocritical and have no moral authority to demand divestment. An analysis of the environmental communication of fossil energy companies classifies this Tu quoque argument as part of a deliberate counter-strategy of these companies and their front organizations, such as the Center for Organizational Research and Education , to attack the actual, ethical approach of the divestment movement.

History of the Divestment Movement

The divestment movement began in the fall of 2010 at Swarthmore College . In the summer of 2011, students at around half a dozen universities campaigned for divestment.

Bill McKibben at the University of Michigan on September 14, 2012

The divestment movement received more attention from an article by Bill McKibben (founder of the organization 350.org ) in Rolling Stone Magazine on July 19, 2012. In it he warned that, according to the Carbon Tracker Initiative, the burning of all known oil , Gas and coal deposits result in emissions of approximately another 2,795 gigatons of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ). According to Fatih Birol from the International Energy Agency , this would lead to a temperature increase of around 6 ° C. In order to achieve the two-degree target , on the other hand, a maximum of only around 565 gigatons of CO 2 should be emitted by 2050 (“ carbon budget ”). This means that around 80 percent of the available fossil fuels should not be mined or promoted. According to the calculations by John B. Fullerton from the Capital Institute , limiting CO 2 emissions to 565 gigatons (i.e. not extracting 80 percent of the oil, coal and natural gas reserves) would mean a loss of around 20 for the companies concerned Trillions of dollars mean. Despite public statements by industry and politics on climate protection, investments are still being made in the extraction of fossil energy sources. The oil and coal industry is therefore the "public enemy number one" when it comes to the survival of our civilization. Since the economic self-interest in climate protection is obviously too low, moral indignation could possibly have an effect. Referring to the success of divestment in the context of the anti- apartheid movement, he called for a divestment movement for climate protection. The political position of the oil and coal industry could possibly be weakened. B. gives up the opposition to a fee-and-dividend solution, or even invests in other forms of energy.

McKibben's article generated millions of social referrals and visits to the Rolling Stone Magazine website. One of the readers was billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer, who was so convinced of McKibben's concerns after personal contact that he was ready to support him full-time. In the following years, Steyer divested his private investments in fossil fuels, influenced Stanford University's decision to divest from the coal industry, financed a television campaign against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline , and gave millions of dollars to election campaigns against Republican "climate skeptics" and helped create hundreds of news items to raise awareness of the issue.

Divestment initiatives and campaigns

Global Climate March in Berlin 2015

As a result of McKibben's article, the number of divestment initiatives grew rapidly, initially primarily in educational institutions. By the beginning of February 2013 there had already been campaigns at 210 universities.

The campaign Fossil Free by 350.org , according to self-representation at present a broad, international network of organizations, groups and individuals in Canada, the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Sweden, Norway, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Switzerland and Germany .

In March 2015, the then editor-in-chief of the British daily The Guardian , Alan Rusbridger , initiated a campaign in cooperation with 350.org and the editors of the medical journals The Lancet and British Medical Journal in which the two largest charitable foundations, the Wellcome Trust and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , have been called for divestment. Over 236,000 people supported the petition.

In Germany, too, there have been divestment initiatives in the healthcare sector since 2015. Among other things, the medical pension funds were asked to divest. The matter was the 118th German Medical Conference at the in May 2015 German Medical Association addressed. The German Platform for Global Health called for divestment in early December 2015.

Various non-governmental organizations called for the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Day on February 13 and 14, 2015 . According to the organizers, there were 450 events in 60 countries. Worldwide campaigns took place again on February 12 and 13, 2016.

At the end of 2016, Climate Alliance Switzerland launched a divestment campaign among Swiss pension funds. The aim of the campaign is to decarbonise the portfolios of the most relevant public-law pension institutions and some private pension funds that are significant in terms of investment volume. Furthermore, the Climate Alliance Switzerland calls for the Swiss National Bank to withdraw from equity investments in the coal, oil and natural gas sectors.

Previous divestments

Growth of the divestment 2011–2020

According to the US consulting firm Arabella Advisors, 181 institutions and 656 individuals, representing a monetary value of over 50 billion US dollars, had agreed to divestment by September 2014. In the following year, until mid-September 2015, the number of supporters increased exponentially to 436 institutions and 2040 individuals from 43 countries, representing a sum of 2,600 billion US dollars. As of December 2016, there were a total of 688 institutions and 58,399 individuals from 76 countries with assets under management of well over US $ 5,000 billion that had committed to some form of divestment - doubling their assets within 15 months. In September 2019, it was $ 11,480 billion, according to Fossil Free .

Matt Dempsey, spokesman for the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said the numbers quoted by the divestment movement were exaggerated or "invented". The Council for Sustainable Development points out that 350.org takes into account the entire investment amount of the companies and not just the portion that is invested in fossil energy companies. The council saw a “new dynamic in the withdrawal of capital from fossil fuels” in connection with the UN climate conference in Paris .

Academic Institutions and Healthcare

Divestment campaign at Harvard University , May 2015

In May 2014, the renowned Stanford University announced that it would divest from the coal industry. Previously, eleven other, less renowned universities had announced their decision to divest.

In October 2014, Glasgow University became the first European university to decide to divest from fossil fuels.

By September 2015, 40 educational institutions had decided to divest; by May 2018, according to Fossil Free, their number had risen to 138.

In June 2014 the British Medical Association and at the end of August 2015 the Canadian Medical Association decided to divest.

In September 2019, the University of California announced the divestment from fossil fuels.

In January 2020, the medical journal The BMJ decided to join the divestment movement and no longer accept advertisements for corporations that promote fossil fuels or publish studies that were (co) financed by companies in the industry. Background are u. a. the efforts of various industries to obscure, distort, or deny any scientific evidence relating to the harmfulness of their products .

Federal states

The first federal state to pass a divestment resolution following a corresponding initiative was the state of Berlin in the summer of 2016 . In April 2017, the Bremen citizenship decided that the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen would not invest in coal, gas and oil.

Fossil Free Bremen Success.jpg

Cities

Fossil Free Berlin People's Climate March Alexanderplatz 6D2B9813.jpg

By May 2018, 93 cities around the world had already decided to divest (including Copenhagen , Oslo , Oxford , New York City and San Francisco ), including Münster as the first German city.

So far, the following cities in Germany have decided to divest (as of May 2018):

  • Muenster
  • Stuttgart
  • Goettingen
  • Berlin
  • Bremen
  • Freiburg
  • Leipzig
  • Oldenburg

Foundations

In September 2014, the Rockefeller Foundation announced that it was divesting approximately $ 50 billion in investments. Great symbolic value has been attributed to this, as the family's fortunes are based on oil production. Since then, the fossil share of assets has decreased to 1.2% (as of March 2019).

Despite initially negative reactions from the Foundation to the Guardian campaign mentioned above, it was announced in May 2016 that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation had sold BP shares for $ 187 million and ExxonMobil shares for $ 824 million in 2015 , but without giving reasons. The Wellcome Trust is not ready to divest yet.

Insurance companies and pension funds

Various insurance companies and pension funds want to end their investments in the fossil fuel industry. Deutsche Bank has been withdrawing from the coal sector since summer 2016. The French insurance company AXA announced in May 2015 that it wanted to divest investments in the coal industry of around 500 million euros. The Norwegian Pension Fund - the world's largest state fund - announced in June 2015 that it would divest from the coal industry from January 2016. According to various estimates, this would affect between 50 and 122 companies and a divestment amount of 8.7 to 10 billion US dollars. In November 2015, the German insurance group Allianz announced its intention to divest from the coal industry, as well as the German pension fund to the press at the beginning of December 2015 . In June 2016, Publica , one of the largest pension funds in Switzerland as a public pension fund, decided to withdraw its investments in coal because the financial risk was too high. The Abendrot Foundation , another Swiss pension fund, has undertaken to sell off all investments in the field of fossil fuels. In 2017, Berliner Ärzteversorgung also decided to divest from investments in coal, oil and gas companies.

In 2019, the Swiss Association for Sustainable Investments (SVVK) published a statement on the Paris Climate Agreement. It mentions divestment as a possible strategy to harmonize financial flows with the Paris Climate Agreement, but portrays it as rather ineffective. In 2019, the Swiss Pension Fund Association (ASIP) welcomed the fact that more and more pension funds are also considering climate, environmental, social and corporate governance aspects (ESG and climate risks) in the context of asset management on their own initiative. However, this does not explicitly address divestment.

In September 2015 , California MPs passed a bill to divest California's two largest pension funds. In early January 2016, the US state of New York announced that the state-run Common Retirement Fund (the third largest pension fund in the US) would deposit two billion US dollars into a new mutual fund . This new investment fund of Goldman Sachs prefer companies with better CO 2 footprint .

Sovereign wealth fund

In July 2018, the Irish House of Commons ( Dáil Éireann ) passed the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill . The law obliges the Irish sovereign wealth fund Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), which managed more than 8 billion euros in assets in 2018, to withdraw investments from companies whose main business is the exploration, extraction or refining of fossil fuels. This concerns capital investments of EUR 318 million.

Public financial institutions

The Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank (EIB) adopted a new financing policy in the energy sector on November 14, 2019 in order to bring the EIB’s financing into line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement. From the end of 2021, the EIB will no longer finance new fossil energy projects without CO 2 reduction.

Other companies

At the end of 2014, the holding company Berkshire Hathaway of the US multibillionaire Warren Buffett no longer held shares in the US oil companies Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips , according to documents for the SEC . At the end of September 2014, Berkshire was still involved in Exxon with shares worth almost four billion US dollars.

The Guardian Media Group decided in early April 2015 to sell all of the shares in fossil energy companies that were in their mutual fund. In January 2020, she stated that she would no longer print any advertisements from oil and gas companies with immediate effect. This makes the Guardian the first major global media organization that generally no longer accepts money from companies that promote fossil fuels.

Churches

In July 2014 the World Council of Churches decided to add fossil fuels to the list of sectors in which investments should not be made. The World Council of Churches did not own any shares in fossil energy companies at the time.

After initial hesitation, the Church of England decided in late April 2015 to divest £ 12 million of assets from companies whose income is more than 10 percent based on oil sands and coal- fired power. However, shares of 101 million pounds in Shell and 92 million in ExxonMobil would not be divested for the time being, as the church hopes to be able to influence the company in this way. If this does not succeed, however, these shares would also be sold.

The Protestant churches in Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia as well as those in Hesse and Nassau also decided to divest.

Prominent individuals

In September 2015, Leonardo DiCaprio announced that he wanted to divest his personal assets and those of his foundations from fossil energy companies.

Organizations and people who advocate divestment

Organizations

In March 2015, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) announced its official support for the divestment movement. In January 2014, UNFCCC chairman Christiana Figueres called on investors to withdraw their money from funds that invest in fossil fuels.

In Germany, the German Government's Advisory Council on Global Change , headed by Hans Joachim Schellnhuber , spoke out in favor of divestment.

In October 2016, the World Medical Association called on its 122 national member organizations (including the German Medical Association ) to divest.

Prominent individuals

Prominent supporters of divestment as a measure for climate protection include the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon , US President Barack Obama , Prince Charles , the politician and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore , the US presidential candidate Bernie Sanders , the director of the World Health Organization ( WHO) Margaret Chan , Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman , economists Thomas Piketty (author of Capital in the 21st Century ) and Tim Jackson (author of Prosperity Without Growth ), the linguist Noam Chomsky , and the Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former Archbishop of the South African Anglican Church Desmond tutu .

Implementation of the divestment

Divestment in the strict sense

In the case of direct investments in companies ( stocks or corporate bonds ), the investor can use divestment in the narrower sense, i. H. A reduction in investments in the field of fossil energy can be achieved relatively easily. A prerequisite for this, however, is that the investor has knowledge of the degree to which a company can be assigned to the field of fossil energy. Such analyzes are often very time-consuming in large companies. Professional investors obtain much of this information from financial data providers. Retail investors can use the assessment of various organizations as a guide. For example, The Carbon Underground 200 ™ provides lists of the 100 companies with the largest coal or oil / gas reserves.

In order to identify the degree to which a company can be assigned to the field of fossil energy, the activities of all subsidiaries, equity investments and financed companies must be taken into account and recorded as with Scope 3 emissions . These determine almost the entire greenhouse gas emissions for companies in the financial sector. It can be seen that many raw material companies relate to fossil fuels that are not assigned to the corresponding industries. Divestment requires a decision as to the degree to which business activities in fossil fuels should be tolerated. The non-compliant titles are sold off and not bought again.

Smaller investors in particular usually invest indirectly via fund certificates or ETFs . The underlying assets are often not known and the investment objectives of the funds do not allow a good assessment of the business areas of the underlying stocks. Fund units with such uncertainties should no longer be held. Even with a high level of transparency, individual basic stocks cannot be sold separately and the entire investment must be called into question.

Fossil Free Funds assesses the share of fossil investments and, in addition to their share, also shows the carbon footprint and the share of Clean200 investments. Labels for classifying fund certificates are offered by various institutions, but are often not yet widely used. The FNG seal in German-speaking countries excludes coal, fracking and oil sands and requires a sustainability analysis for 90% of the portfolio titles, from 2020 for all. The Greenfin label from Novethic excludes fossil fuels completely.

More general forms of divestment

Divestment in the more general sense can take into account other - more complex - parameters in addition to the current activity in the field of fossil energies. This can be a more general greenhouse gas footprint determined using carbon accounting . However, other parameters can also be used to assess a company's climate friendliness, for example the expected future climate friendliness or the company's impact on the company's greenhouse gas balance .

The calculation of the greenhouse gas footprint is now the most common. For stocks and corporate bonds, certain standards have developed in recent years. There are also proposals for derivatives .

There are completely different approaches to assessing government bonds; for small investors, for example, the climate protection index can be used as a criterion.

The assignment of a company's greenhouse gas footprint or other quantitative parameters to its asset classes (stocks, bonds and possibly other financial instruments) is not standardized and can quickly lead to double counting of greenhouse gas emissions.

Larger institutional investors often have the resources to develop and implement their own investment concepts in the areas of sustainability, ethical investment or “divestments from fossil energies”. The analysis effort involved is considerable and should not be described in detail here. For private investors and smaller companies it is more practical to rely on known strategies, specific indices and products based on them.

Strategies, indices and products for retail investors

The number of products and the money invested in the field of sustainability have increased significantly since the beginning of the 21st century. Nevertheless, the number of products that focus exclusively on the subject of divestment from fossil fuels remains relatively manageable. Some indices and rating agencies are given as examples in the table below . These performances do not claim to be complete or to be superior to other providers or methods.

There are various product concepts on the subject of divestment from fossil energies. Four important methods are presented in the table below. These are based on the methods of ethical investment , which have been developed in very similar ways by different organizations ( criteria and instruments ). You focus on companies and therefore focus on the asset classes stocks or corporate bonds. The "engagement" method is omitted here, as it is fundamentally impractical for small investors due to the effort involved. The methods each include divestment in the narrower sense and suitable strategies for replacement investments.

Depending on their preferences, investors can now select one or more methods and search for products based on the above-mentioned or similar indices or ratings, for example via their house bank or on the Internet . Products can be, for example, ETFs , investment funds or certificates .

method description advantages disadvantage example Examples of index providers / rating agencies or similar
1) Exclusions or Negative Screening Companies in the mineral, natural gas and coal industries are excluded from investments Simple and transparent method No direct influence on the company. So probably very little or no effect on the company Exxon Mobile is being sold from an existing portfolio of shares MSCI Fossil Fuel Exclusion Index

MSCI ex Coal Indexes

S&P Global 1200 Fossil Fuel Free Indices

2) Best in class Relative comparisons within a sector, whereby only the best companies from a CO 2 emission point of view are invested or these are overweighted High level of detail. Presumably the companies have a higher incentive to get involved Time-consuming, as criteria have to be defined at sector level Within the petroleum sector, the focus is on the companies with the greatest reduction in CO 2 STOXX Global Climate Change Leaders

The MSCI Global Low Carbon Leaders Index

3) Selection or weighting according to an eco-rating Rating agencies create company or fund ratings according to ecological criteria (however, other criteria are often also taken into account, such as social) High to very high level of detail. Presumably the companies have a higher incentive to get involved Laborious. Sometimes difficult to compare the information of the individual companies with each other Investments in the largest CO 2 emitters according to The Carbon Underground 200 ™ will be divested ISS-Oekom

Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index (DJSI)

Climetrics, Climpax (for investment funds),

The Carbon Underground 200 ™

4) Thematic / direct investments

or impact investing

Investments in companies, organizations and funds with the specific intention of reducing CO 2 emissions. The impact is part of the investment strategy and is measured Probably the most direct incentive for companies to get involved Possibly disadvantages in diversification. Fewer products to choose from. Climate protection funds or funds to reduce CO 2, for example Re100 from The Climate Group
Mixed forms of methods 1–4 Method 1 & 2: S&P Global 1200 Fossil Fuel Free Carbon Efficient Indices
  • Comment on method 1: The index provider MSCI launched a number of indices from October 2014, of which only two examples are listed in the table above.
  • Comment on method 4: This method only describes replacement investments and no divestment in the narrower sense.

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Fossil Fuel Divestment  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Hans Joachim Schellnhuber et al .: Climate protection as a global citizen movement . Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Government on Global Change , Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-936191-42-4 .
  2. ↑ The oil and gas boom causes methane emissions to rise . Karlsruhe Institute of Technology . March 14, 2016. Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  3. ^ Oil Change International (ed.): The Sky's Limit: Why the Paris Climate Goals Require a Managed Decline of Fossil Fuel Production . September 2016 ( priceofoil.org [PDF; 6.4 MB ]). Also: Bill McKibben: Recalculating the Climate Math: The numbers on global warming are even scarier than we thought. In: New Republic . September 22, 2016, accessed January 13, 2017 .
  4. ↑ Christophe McGlade, Paul Ekins: The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused When limiting global warming to 2 ° C . In: Nature . 517, 2015, pp. 187-190. doi : 10.1038 / nature14016 .
  5. ^ Ottmar Edenhofer , King Coal and the queen of subsidies . In: Science 349, Issue 6254, (2015), 1286f, doi: 10.1126 / science.aad0674 .
  6. ↑ Article 2c in the Paris Agreement . 2015 ( bund.de [PDF; 238 kB ]). For the implicit withdrawal of capital from emission-intensive financial investments: Maria Ivanova: Good COP, Bad COP: Climate Reality after Paris . In: Global Policy . tape 3 , no. 7 , September 4, 2016, doi : 10.1111 / 1758-5899.12370 (review article).
  7. ^ Mark Carney : Breaking the tragedy of the horizon - climate change and financial stability . Bank of England . September 29, 2015. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bankofengland.co.uk
  8. ↑ Larry Elliott: Carney warns of risks from climate change 'tragedy of the horizon' . In: The Guardian . September 29, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  9. ^ Air quality: Data and statistics . World Health Organization . Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  10. ↑ Keep it in the ground . In: The Guardian . Retrieved November 1, 2016.
  11. ↑ a b c d e f Atif Ansar, Ben Caldecott, James Tilbury: Stranded assets and the fossil fuel divestment campaign: What does divestment mean for the valuation of fossil fuel assets? (PDF) Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, University of Oxford , October 2013.
  12. ↑ Julie Ayling, Neil Gunningham: Non-state governance and climate policy: the fossil fuel divestment movement . In: Climate Policy . October 23, 2015, pp. 1–15. doi : 10.1080 / 14693062.2015.1094729 .
  13. ^ Susan Weinstein: Why Divestment Can Be Successful . In: The New York Times . May 13, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  14. ↑ a b Fossil Free MIT: Noam Chomsky on the subject of divestment (video, 2 min 35 sec) . April 28, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  15. ^ A b Christian Parenti : A Worthy Goal, but a Suspect Method . In: The New York Times . January 27, 2013. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  16. ↑ a b c d David Gelles: Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement Harnesses the Power of Shame . In: The New York Times . June 13, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  17. ↑ a b c d Ivo Welch : Why Divestment Fails . In: The New York Times . May 9, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2016. Article on ucla.edu (no access restrictions).
  18. ^ Bill McKibben: Money Is the Oxygen on Which the Fire of Global Warming Burns . September 17, 2019, ISSN  0028-792X ( newyorker.com [accessed October 27, 2019]).
  19. ^ Bill McKibben: Turning Colleges' Partners Into Pariahs . In: The New York Times . February 11, 2014. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  20. ↑ Nico Bauer, Christophe McGlade, Jérôme Hilaire, Paul Ekins: Divestment prevails over the green paradox When anticipating strong future climate policies . In: Nature Climate Change . January 29, 2018, ISSN  1758-6798 , doi : 10.1038 / s41558-017-0053-1 ( nature.com [accessed January 29, 2018]).
  21. ^ The impact of climate change on the UK insurance sector . Bank of England . September 2015. Archived from the original on October 25, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 5, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bankofengland.co.uk
  22. ↑ Unhedgeable risk: How climate change sentiment impacts investment . University of Cambridge . 2015. Retrieved November 5, 2016.
  23. ↑ Dagmar Kiyar, Bettina BF Wittneben: Carbon as Investment Risk-The Influence of Fossil Fuel Divestment on Decision Making at Germany's main power provider . In: Energies . 8, No. 9, September 2015, pp. 9620-9639. doi : 10.3390 / en8099620 .
  24. ^ Benjamin J. Richardson: Fossil Fuels Divestment: Is it Lawful? In: University of New South Wales Law Journal . tape 39 , no. November 4 , 2016 ( ssrn.com [PDF]).
  25. ↑ According to: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (Ed.): Sustainable and Responsible Investing - A Guide: The UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) . November 2012, p. 16–17 ( bvi.de [PDF; 585 kB ; accessed on December 29, 2016]). Investing sustainably and responsibly - a guideline: The UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) ( Memento of the original from March 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bvi.de
  26. ↑ Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Peter K. Bsumek, Jennifer Peeples: The Hypocite's Trap . In: Under Pressure (=  Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication ). Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016, doi : 10.1057 / 978-1-137-53315-9_5 .
  27. ↑ James B. Stewart: A Clash of Ideals and Investments at Swarthmore . In: The New York Times . May 16, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  28. ↑ Joanna Walters: Swarthmore College says it will not pursue fossil fuel divestment . In: The Guardian . May 2, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  29. ↑ Economic Drivers: Divest-Invest Global Movement Action Statement and Action Plan (Climate Summit 2014) . United Nations . September 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  30. ^ Bill McKibben : Global Warming's Terrifying New Math . In: Rolling Stone Magazine . July 19, 2012. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  31. ^ Ryan Lizza: The President And the Pipeline . In: The New Yorker . September 16, 2013. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  32. ^ Matthew C. Nisbet: Disruptive ideas: public intellectuals and their arguments for action on climate change . In: Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change . 5, No. 6, pp. 809-823. doi : 10.1002 / wcc.317 .
  33. ↑ Chloe Maxmin: Why Divestment is Changing the Climate Movement . In: The Nation . January 24, 2013. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  34. ↑ What is the Fossil Free Movement . Retrieved March 9, 2016.
  35. ^ Damian Carrington: Wellcome Trust defies campaigners to increase fossil fuel investment . In: The Guardian . December 28, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  36. ↑ a b Dagmar Dehmer: How the "Guardian" became an advocate for the climate movement . In: Der Tagesspiegel . May 13, 2016. Retrieved May 29, 2016.
  37. ↑ David McCoy, Hugh Montgomery, Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, Fiona Godlee: Climate change and human survival Archived from the original on October 16, 2015. Information: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF) In: British Medical Journal . 348, March 26, 2014, p. G2351. doi : 10.1136 / bmj.g2351 . Retrieved January 10, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.climateandhealthalliance.org
  38. ↑ a b Emma Howard: Leading health experts call on Wellcome to divest from fossil fuels . In: The Guardian . June 25, 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  39. ↑ Michael Bauchmüller: The doctors and the coal . In: Süddeutsche.de . May 26, 2016. Retrieved June 1, 2016.
  40. ↑ Doctors call for divestment . In: klimaretter.info . March 26, 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  41. ↑ End investments in fossil fuel production companies (PDF) German Medical Association . Pp. 358-360. May 2015. Retrieved January 10, 2016.
  42. ↑ Climate Change and Health: A Wake-Up Call for the Health Sector . German platform for global health. December 8, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  43. ↑ February 13-14 is Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Day . UNFCCC. February 12, 2015. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / newsroom.unfccc.int
  44. ↑ Global Divestment Day was huge! . gofossilfree.org. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  45. ↑ Show the Love: Take action for divestment this February . gofossilfree.org. January 12, 2016. Retrieved January 27, 2016.
  46. ↑ Climate Alliance Switzerland: Climate Compatibility of Swiss Pension Funds - An Overview. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  47. ↑ Climate Alliance Switzerland: National Bank: Get out of oil, natural gas and coal now! Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  48. ↑ Climate Alliance Switzerland: Recommendations on climate risks to the Swiss National Bank. (PDF) Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  49. ^ Measuring the Growth of the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement . Arabella Advisors. September 2015. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.arabellaadvisors.com
  50. ↑ Investors Worth $ 2.6 Trillion Looking to Divest Fossil Fuels: Divest-Invest Movement . UNFCCC . September 24, 2015. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / newsroom.unfccc.int
  51. ↑ a b Damian Carrington, Emma Howard: Institutions worth $ 2.6 trillion have now pulled investments out of fossil fuels . In: The Guardian . September 22, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  52. ↑ Arabella Advisors (ed.): The Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement . December 2016 ( divestinvest.org [PDF; 688 kB ; accessed on January 13, 2017]). The Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / divestinvest.org
  53. ^ Divestment Commitments. In: Gofossilifree.org. September 29, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2019 (American English).
  54. ↑ a b Victor Luckerson: Glasgow becomes first university in Europe to divest from fossil fuels . In: Time Magazine . September 22, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  55. ↑ Climate summit provides a new dynamic in capital withdrawal from fossil energy . Sustainable Development Council . December 17th, 2015. Archived from the original on October 29th, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 9, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nachhaltigkeitsrat.de
  56. ↑ Michael Wines: Stanford to Purge $ 18 Billion Endowment of Coal Stock . In: The New York Times . May 6, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  57. ^ Libby Brooks: Glasgow becomes first university in Europe to divest from fossil fuels . In: The Guardian . October 8, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  58. ↑ a b Fossil Free: Divestment Commitments . Retrieved May 23, 2018.
  59. ^ André Picard: Canadian Medical Association divesting fossil fuel holdings . In: The Globe and Mail . August 26, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
  60. ↑ Felicia Mello: Citing 'financial risk,' UC pledges to divest from fossil fuels. September 18, 2019, Retrieved October 15, 2019 (American English).
  61. ↑ Kamran Abbasi, Fiona Godlee: Investing in humanity: The BMJ's divestment campaign . In: The BMJ . tape 368 , 2020, doi : 10.1136 / bmj.m167 .
  62. ↑ Anja Nehls: Berlin withdraws money from coal . In: Deutschlandfunk . June 24, 2015. Accessed June 24, 2016.
  63. ↑ Resolution recommendation for the application: Berlin as divestment capital - for ecologically sustainable financial investments of the State of Berlin . Berlin House of Representatives. June 23, 2016. Accessed June 24, 2016.
  64. ↑ Minutes of the 84th plenary meeting (Section 19 T) . Berlin House of Representatives. June 23, 2016. Accessed June 24, 2016.
  65. ↑ Hannes Koch: No capital for coal . In: The daily newspaper . February 13, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  66. ↑ Oliver Milman: New York City plans to divest $ 5bn from fossil fuels and sue oil companies . In: The Guardian . January 10, 2018, ISSN  0261-3077 ( theguardian.com [accessed September 29, 2019]).
  67. ^ Hannes Koch: Divestment in Germany: Münster wants to sell RWE shares . In: The daily newspaper: taz . November 4, 2015, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on March 22, 2018]).
  68. ↑ Stuttgart relies on sustainability: Exit from the coal business . In: SWR . July 29, 2015. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
  69. ^ Reimar Paul: No investment in climate criminals: Göttingen wants clean money . In: The daily newspaper: taz . May 10, 2017, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed on March 22, 2018]).
  70. ↑ Ronja Ringelstein: From now on Berlin wants to invest cleanly . In: Der Tagesspiegel Online . November 8, 2016, ISSN  1865-2263 ( tagesspiegel.de [accessed March 22, 2018]).
  71. ↑ Citizenship group Bündnis 90 Bremen: Bremen excludes investment in fossil fuels and nuclear power - Press - Citizenship group Bündnis 90 Bremen. Retrieved May 23, 2017 .
  72. ^ Badische Zeitung: Freiburg joins the "Fossil Free Movement" - but Badenova is allowed to continue trading in natural gas - Freiburg - Badische Zeitung . ( badische-zeitung.de [accessed on March 22, 2018]).
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  74. ↑ Grabo Service e. S .: Fossil Free Oldenburg welcomes divestment by the city of Oldenburg - Cornelia Schröder Oldenburger Internet newspaper - www.landkreis-kurier.de. Retrieved March 22, 2018 .
  75. ↑ Suzanne Goldenberg: Heirs to Rockefeller oil fortune divest from fossil fuels over climate change . In: The Guardian . September 22, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  76. ^ Rockefeller Foundation: Divestment . Accessed August 2019.
  77. ↑ Emma Howard: Bill Gates calls fossil fuel divestment a 'false solution' . In: The Guardian . October 14, 2015. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
  78. ^ John Sulston: The Wellcome Trust's polite business chats won't save the Earth . In: The Guardian . April 8, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  79. ^ Colin Butler: Planetary health and the philanthrocapitalist paradox. Doctors for the Environment Australia, April 22, 2019.
  80. ↑ Deutsche Bank Pulls Back from Deals in Coal Mining Sector, NY Times, July 2016
  81. ^ Fiona Harvey: Axa to divest from high-risk coal funds due to threat of climate change . In: The Guardian . May 22, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  82. ↑ Damian Carrington: Norway confirms $ 900bn sovereign wealth fund's major coal divestment . In: The Guardian . June 5, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  83. ↑ Michael Bauchmüller, Silke Bigalke: Vorreiter Oslo . In: Süddeutsche.de . May 28, 2015. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
  84. ↑ Alexandra Endres: A victory for the coal opponents . In: Zeit Online . November 24, 2014. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
  85. ↑ 4.3% total return . Press supply . December 9, 15. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  86. ↑ Federal pension fund withdraws from coal . Sunday newspaper . June 12, 2016. Retrieved June 15, 2016.
  87. ↑ The Abendrot Foundation. The sustainable pension fund: sustainable securities. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  88. ^ Fossil Free: Full List of Divestment Commitments. Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  89. ^ Deutscher Ärzteverlag GmbH, editorial office of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt: Berlin medical care is serious about climate protection . ( aerzteblatt.de [accessed on March 22, 2018]).
  90. ↑ Swiss Association for Sustainable Investments (SVVK): SVVK-ASIR statement on the Paris climate agreement . 2019 ( svvk-asir.ch [PDF]).
  91. ↑ Swiss Pension Fund Association (ASPI): Technical Communication No. 116: ESG and Climate Risks. (PDF) Retrieved May 30, 2019 .
  92. ↑ Anita Chabria: California passes bill forcing biggest pension funds to divest from coal . In: The Guardian . September 2, 2015. Accessed June 5, 2016.
  93. ^ Tina Rosenberg: An Investment Strategy to Save the Planet . In: The New York Times . January 5, 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2016.
  94. ^ Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill 2016 (Bill 103 of 2016). Oireachtas , accessed July 13, 2018 .
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  96. ↑ Bank of the EU: ambitious climate strategy and new financing policy in the energy sector. In: EIB. November 14, 2019, accessed November 15, 2019 .
  97. ↑ Christian Mihatsch: Europe's development bank is the first to withdraw from fossil fuels. In: Klimareporter. November 15, 2019, accessed on November 15, 2019 (German).
  98. ↑ Hannes Koch, dpa: A lot of capital flees from oil and coal . In: Badische Zeitung . February 19, 2015. Retrieved February 9, 2016.
  99. ^ Damian Carrington: Guardian Media Group to divest its £ 800m fund from fossil fuels . In: The Guardian . April 1, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2016.
  100. ^ Guardian to ban advertising from fossil fuel firms . In: The Guardian , January 29, 2020. Retrieved January 29, 2020.
  101. ^ Adam Vaughan: World Council of Churches rules out fossil fuel investments . In: The Guardian . July 11, 2014. Retrieved January 30, 2016.
  102. ^ Adam Vaughan: Church of England 'failing to heed call to divest from fossil fuels' . In: The Guardian . November 4, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  103. ^ Adam Vaughan: Church of England ends investments in heavily polluting fossil fuels . In: The Guardian . April 30, 2015. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
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  106. ↑ Damian Carrington: Climate change: UN backs fossil fuel divestment campaign . In: The Guardian . March 15, 2015. Retrieved January 9, 2016.
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  109. ↑ Health Organization urged to divest from fossil fuels . World Medical Association . October 22nd, 2016. Archived from the original on October 24th, 2016. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved October 24, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wma.net
  110. ↑ Ban Ki-moon Urges More Fossil Fuel Divestment . UNFCCC . November 11, 2014. Archived from the original on January 17, 2016. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 17, 2016. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / newsroom.unfccc.int
  111. ^ A b Paul Krugman : Invest, Divest and Prosper . In: The New York Times . June 27, 2013. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
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  116. ^ Margaret Chan : Healthy Energy for the Paris Climate Negotiations . In: G7 - Climate Change: The New Economy . June 2015.
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  118. ^ Desmond Tutu : We need an apartheid-style boycott to save the planet . In: The Guardian . April 10, 2014. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
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  122. ^ Francis Condon: Investing in Response to Climate Change: RobecoSAM's Toolki. RobecoSAM, August 2015, accessed November 13, 2019 .
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  126. ^ Greenfin Label, an Essential Benchmark for Green Finance. Retrieved October 31, 2019 .
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  132. ↑ RobecoSAM AG: S & P Fossil Fuel Free index family. RobecoSAM AG, accessed on November 2, 2019 (English).
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  135. ↑ Climetrics - CDP. Retrieved October 31, 2019 .
  136. ↑ EIT-Climate KIT: Climate impact rating for investment funds. EIT-Climate KIT, accessed on November 13, 2019 .
  137. ^ The Carbon Underground 200 ™. Fossil Free Funds, accessed November 22, 2019 .
  138. ↑ Detailed definition. Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon, accessed October 18, 2019 .
  139. ↑ Re100. The Climate Group, accessed November 25, 2019 .
  140. ↑ S&P Dow Jones Indices: S&P Global 1200 Carbon Efficient Index. S&P Dow Jones Indices, accessed November 2, 2019 .
  141. ↑ MSCI: MSCI Launches Global Fossil Fuels Exclusion Indexes. MSCI, accessed October 20, 2019 .