4th May, 2015
UK-based aid organisation Christian Aid has welcomed the Church of England’s announcement that it will dump its investments in coal and oil sands producers in a move timed to coincide with the introduction of a new policy aimed at helping to fight climate change.
Christine Allen, Christian Aid”s director of policy and public affairs, said the church "has effectively read the last rites to the coal and tar sands industry".
"The message must be heard loud and clear; they have no place in a sustainable future, and ultimately other fossil fuels don”t either," she said. “The openness to further divestment from intransigent companies must be heard as a final warning to the energy industry: shift investment out of fossil fuels and into renewables or your investors will do so for you. Every pound divested by churches, public institutions or individuals is a sign that we are serious."
The Church of England announced on 30th April that the church would no longer make any direct investments in any company where more than per cent of its revenues are derived from the extraction of thermal coal or the production of oil from tar sands.
Rev Canon Professor Richard Burridge, deputy chair of the church’s ethical investment advisory group, said in a statement announcing the news that with climate change "already a reality", the focus of the investing bodies "must be on assisting the transition to a low carbon economy".
"The church has a moral responsibility to speak and act on both environmental stewardship and justice for the world’s poor who are most vulnerable to climate change," he said. "This responsibility encompasses not only the church’s own work to reduce our own carbon footprint, but also how the church’s money is invested and how we engage with companies on this vital issue."
The church has adopted a new climate change policy which sets out how its three national investing bodies will support the transition to a low carbon economy, the primary focus of which will be a more intensive engagement with the companies in which they hold shares.
– DAVID ADAMS
