#2: What have Leonardo DiCaprio, the Church of Sweden and King’s College in Common? Right, they’ve divested!

Previously, I introduced Bill McKibben. This leads me to this blog post, which will assess a both extolled and criticized mechanism in climate change mitigation, in which McKibben takes a central role: Fossil Fuel Divestment.

 Have a stroll around what is considered the largest coal mine on earth called the North Antelope Rochell Coal Mine in Wyoming, US. Honestly, I am awestruck by the dimensions, even to be seen from space. The entire area recovers around 2.3 billion tonnes of coal - per year! Does the Divestment Campaign stand a chance? 

Ten days ago (October 19^th) the discourse around fossil fuel divestment has been fuelled by the latest issue and special edition of the Law & Policy Journal comprising several papers on Divestment. Given this recent and extensive amount of literature, make yourself a cup of tea everyone!

According to the 2015 Carbon Tracker Study, around 20% of all fossil fuel emissions caused by the industry are backed up by public investment - raising the question of public responsibility. Bearing in mind the figures outlined in the last post - this accounts for a massive amount of all carbon emitted.
This is what leads us to Divestment: 

Divestment itself is the re-investment of assets from one industry into another, thus withdrawing financial ties with that very industry for particular reasons (Richardson, 2017). Fossil Fuel Divestment is the shift from assets in the coal, oil and gas industry (and closely related sectors such as fracking and tar sands) to other, ‘carbon free’ sectors. Hence, fossil fuel divestment is part of the wider Social Responsible Investment (SRI) movement. The head campaign behind current fossil fuel Divestment is the Fossil Free Campaign, which has started in 2012 with a group urging the Middlebury College (US) to divest its assets. Hitherto, the movement has entered the global financial market 'targeting' churches, pension funds, banks and other institutions (Gunningham, 2017).

A fossil free campaign. Source: grist.org

The math behind divestment is simple: According to the think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative (2012), the estimated amount of all carbon which is currently (or at least was in 2012) under the ground and already in the inventory of the fossil fuel industry is about 2,795 gigatons. To keep the rise in average temperature on earth below 2° many scientists consider the maximum of fossil fuels which can be burned to be around 565 gigatons. To reach this goal, the movement argues, that about 80% of all known fossil fuel reservoirs need to left untouched (McKibben, 2013). 

That is when the economy (or even capitalism) hits. This very carbon (and other fossil fuels) under the ground is considered the source of growth thus wealth for leading stakeholders in the fossil fuel industry, for selected companies as well as for a number of nations around the globe. To rely on the industries to act altruistically (e.g. stopping the drilling) appears naive. Consequently, the campaign aims to make the fossil fuel industries neglect the carbon in the ground. This proves challenging since divestment does not obtain any financial power - it is utopian to assume that if sufficient institutions divest, financial instability will hit the fossil fuel industry forcing shut down plants. Whenever an institution divests, there still is another investor happy to pick up the assets. Also, many fossil fuel companies are state-owned hence discouraging divestment. Finally, there is still the question of where to invest into after divestment since many investment portfolios are spread over all asset classes (Gunningham, 2017).

Crucially, we are discussing a social and political movement, not a financial one. The strategy behind the (social) movement attempting to impact the global financial market is threefold: Firstly, the divestment campaign reframes the common perception of fossil fuels: instead of approaching fossil fuels as a financial and economic issue the movement frames divestment as a question of morality and politics (Benito, 2005). The question raised is not: Can you stop relying on returns from assets in an eloquent and traditionally powerful industry? But: Will you join us building a planet able to provide livelihoods for future generations? 

Secondly, by demanding institutional investors to divest which serve the public good they approach a branch which is particularly sensitive about its reputation. And, in terms of universities, are typically connected to young and engaged people (e.g.students) ready to take over a campaign (and yes, there is a running campaign at UCL too). For instance, approaching Christian Institutions, arguing that it is the people's duty to protect the planet can be a powerful argument - and moreover can convince young community attached.
Thirdly, the distinctive strategy behind the divestment campaign aims to raise awareness about climate change and the role of the fossil fuel industry thus promote a shift in values. In the long term, in theory, this leads to climate-friendly legislation and governance (Gunningham, 2017). Subsequently, this ideally makes it harder for fossil fuel companies to operate and expand in the future.

UCL divestment campaign. Source: unipaper.co.uk

By the end of the day, divestment in a sense is a multi-level contest of legitimacy between the fossil fuel industry and the fossil free movement (Ayling, 2017). To successfully turn the campaign into authoritative power it is crucial for the divestment campaign to gain and maintain that very legitimacy – with potential difficulties on two level: The pragmatic one hence finding practical yet reliable alternatives and on a moral when demanding financial choices to suit the climate protective rhetoric.The question arising now is: How effective is that climate warming mitigation mechanism?

Since this is such an extensive topic to talk about, I will give a break at this point, to be continued in the next post! Meanwhile, have a look at the blog by my classmate Robbie who writes about other kinds of climate activism.