Date: Wednesday 18th March 2015.
Time: 14:15-15:30pm.
Location: 16 University Square, Room 101.
Divestment Overview
The extraction of coal, oil and gas has provided unimaginable wealth, employment and has helped to increase living standards globally. However, it is also connected to a variety of localised environmental and social harms related to the extraction process – think enormous coal mining accidents in China, political corruption in Nigeria and the pollution of watercourses in Canada – in addition to its role in fuelling global climate change.
Investment in the fossil fuel industry is profitable. Most public institutions have invested pension funds, savings and endowments in the industry as it provides a reliable source of income. However, the global movement for ‘fossil fuel divestment’ – argues that it is now ethically (and economically) indefensible to continue to invest in this way, and campaigns for the withdrawal of any investments in companies involved in fossil-fuel extraction.
Similarly to the campaign to divest from the South African regime during apartheid – a growing number of universities, towns and cities have now publically committed to divest from fossil fuels. Glasgow University was the first UK university to divest from fossil fuels, taking the decision to do so in 2014 in response to a student campaign. Others are expected to follow soon – and a divestment campaign is underway at QUB.
This meeting will discuss the notion of divestment, its effectiveness and its desirability.
Texts for discussion:
1) Bill McKibben, ‘The case for fossil fuel divestment’, Rolling Stone (22nd Feb 2013).
2) 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?’ (2013) (executive summary – pages 9-18 – only).
3) Ken Cohen, ‘Some thoughts on divestment’, ExxonMobile Perspectives blog (10th Oct 2014).
Questions to think about:
1) What is divestment – why is it limited to fossil fuel extraction only?
2) Is divestment justified?
3) Does it make any difference?
4) Why focus on producers, what about consumers?
5) Is divestment a ‘diversion’, ‘out of step with reality’, a ‘feel-good folly’ and/or a ‘hindrance to efforts against energy poverty’?
For further information, please contact Ben Christman (bchristman01@qub.ac.uk)