Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign to hold Global Day of Action

The Fossil Free campaign, which has spearheaded the movement to divest from fossil fuels since it began in 2012, will hold a Global Divestment Day spanning six continents on February 13-14.

Global Divestment Day will celebrate the incredible growth and increasingly international reach of the fossil fuel divestment movement.

By 2014, 180 institutions had divested citing climate or carbon risk as their motivation. There are now over 500 active divestment campaigns underway at universities, cities, churches, banks, pension funds and other institutions.

“The divestment movement is already making a huge impact,” said May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org, one of the organizations supporting the divestment effort. “In just two years, this campaign has grown from a few universities to hundreds of institutions around the world. Together, we've succeeded in challenging the social license of the fossil fuels industry, and begun to chip away at their political power. Global Divestment Day will celebrate this success, and help launch a new chapter of this growing movement.”

The divestment campaign highlights a conflict that most politicians are reluctant to address. If the world is to avoid catastrophic global warming, most known fossil fuel resources need to stay in the ground. As world leaders plan to gather in Paris later this year to attempt once again to secure a global deal to address the climate crisis, divestment provides the means to take back power from the fossil fuel industry and deliver a mandate for bold climate leadership before it's too late.

“On Global Divestment Day we will be sending a clear message to the world: now is the time to end the age of fossil fuels,” said Payal Parekh, Global Managing Director for 350.org. “Instead of funding the problem, we need to start funding solutions in the form of clean, renewable sources of energy. This is the only real solution to overcoming the climate crisis”.

On February 13-14 worldwide actions will include: individuals closing their accounts with banks and pension funds investing in climate chaos; university students holding 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.

In the financial capitals, people will gather for colourful rallies calling on investors to break up with the fossil fuel industry and sever their ties once and for all.

Hundreds of events are now planned worldwide for Global Divestment Day in 48 countries spanning 6 continents.

Clean energy campaigners were loud at the COP20 in Lima, Peru.