divestment

A closer look reveals disparities in the progress Canada's largest pension funds have made in developing their climate strategies, writes Laura McGrath.

Every place you go with a photo of a smiling, optimistic student beside your university’s name, someone will demand to know how continuing to invest in fossil fuels is compatible with empowering the best possible future for young people, write six University of Toronto professors and a PhD candidate.

A new campaign urges the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University to use their money divested from fossil fuel companies to back projects with social and environmental benefits to local communities.

The worldwide divestment campaign has sought commitments from universities, corporations and other entities. Now, two of the biggest names in philanthropy — the Ford and MacArthur foundations — are reorienting their investments away from fossil fuels, a move that leaders of the divestment movement hope will prove to be a tipping point for the charitable world.

The global climate justice movement focused its protest energy directly on big banks who bankroll new and expanded fossil fuel projects on Friday, with Royal Bank of Canada marked as enemy No. 1 in actions across Canada.

During the first half of 2021, RBC has been the target of a public pressure campaign spanning from coast to coast — with customers, shareholders, and employees calling on the “worst fossil bank” in Canada to stop financing fossil fuels.

The University of Waterloo’s decision to recognize the role of the fossil fuel industry in perpetuating the climate crisis is a strong step in the right direction, write UW students Michelle Angkasa, Petra Duff and Guy Brodsky.

Professors at Ontario's three largest universities are demanding their soon-to-be-merged pension fund stop investing in fossil fuels, manage divestment of existing assets and set clear and transparent targets towards decarbonizing the fund over the next two decades. 

“If we are to talk about economics in general, I think we can’t hide the fact that there is huge divestment happening from the fossil fuel sector,” says David Suzuki Foundation director general for Quebec and Atlantic Canada, Sabaa Khan.

A resolution calling for the Anglo-Dutch company to set binding carbon emissions reduction targets received 30 per cent of votes at the oil company’s annual meeting on Tuesday.

For the Canadian Catholic community, investment decisions and divestment from the fossil fuels energy sector reflect the Pope’s call to Care for Our Common Home, writes Agnes Richard of the Global Catholic Climate Movement.

A southwestern Ontario credit union with $1 billion under management will shift next month to offering mutual funds exclusively focused on options that account for environmental, social and governance factors.

As nations tackle the climate emergency and markets "drive a low-carbon economic transition, we need to make sure our investments line up with this reality,” said New York State comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the trustee of the US$247-billion fund.

Given the rapidly escalating climate crisis, it comes as little surprise that some shareholders have proposed a resolution urging RBC to implement time-bound greenhouse gas reduction targets, writes fossil fuel divestment organizer Evelyn Austin.

Tariq Fancy once oversaw the start of the biggest effort to turn Wall Street "green" — but now believes the climate crisis can never be solved by today’s free markets.