The Anglican Diocese of Montreal Votes to Divest from Fossil Fuels

The Anglican Diocese of Montreal Votes to Divest from Fossil Fuels On Friday October 16, 2015, the Diocese of Montreal voted by an overwhelming margin to divest from fossil fuels at their annual synod. The motion was advanced by the Stewardship of the Environment Committee. The motion specifically called for divestment from the Carbon Underground 200, a list of the dirtiest coal and oil companies in the world.

Montreal is the first Anglican diocese in Canada to pass such a divestment motion. Although others have voted to study divestment, Montreal is the first diocese to pass a motion with specific actionable plans that must be executed in a "timely" fashion.

Faith Communities and Divestment and the Canadian National Election in 2015

The movement to divest from fossil fuels and invest in renewable energy and climate solutions has exploded, growing fifty-fold in the past year. To date, 430 institutions and 2,040 individuals across 43 countries and representing $2.6 trillion in assets have committed to divest from fossil fuel companies.

Faith communities cannot, in good conscience, be strong advocates for addressing climate change while continuing to profit from fossil fuel companies. As Archbishop Desmond Tutu has said, “[p]eople of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change.”

Facts Sheet: Five FAQ about the Motion to Divest from Fossil Fuels in the Anglican Diocese of Montreal

The Divestment Motion for the Anglican Diocese of Montreal reads as follows:

"Be it resolved that synod direct the Finance Standing Committee and its advisers to explicitly examine Diocesan investment and its implications on climate change, and to divest from those companies known to be the worst polluters as published in the "Carbon Underground 200," an annually updated list of the top 100 public coal companies globally and the top 100 public oil and gas companies globally, as ranked by the potential carbon emissions content of their reported reserves. The list is produced and maintained by Fossil Free Index."

In Addition to Faith Communities Fossil Fuel Divestment is of Interest to Investors Businesses and Power Companies

Faith communities have been at the forefront of the fossil fuel divestment movement, but they are not alone. As reviewed in this article, investors, businesses and even power companies are acting in response to divestment.
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The fossil fuel divestment movement is gaining serious traction and resonating widely. Divestment is at the forefront of efforts to manage climate impacts, and due to concerns about growing financial and reputational risks, investors, businesses and power companies are being forced to take notice.

While many initially dismissed divestment from fossil fuels as purely symbolic there is growing reason to believe that it is powering meaningful change. To date we have seen a total of 2.6 trillion divested from fossil fuels and the movement continues to grow. In the last year alone there has been a 50 fold increase in divestment activity.

Report on Faith Based Divestment from Fossil Fuels

Here is an except focused on faith based divestment from fossil fuels. It is taken from a report called, "Measuring the Growth of the Global Fossil Fuel Divestment and Clean Energy Investment Movement":

Faith communities worldwide continue to divest—and are helping shift the climate debate to one grounded in a moral responsibility, bolstering the divestment and investment movement.

Islamic Leaders Call for a Phaseout of Fossil Fuels and More Renewables

Islamic leaders from 20 nations called for the phaseout of greenhouse-gas emissions from burning fossil fuels and for 100 percent of energy to come from renewables in an effort to rein in more dangerous levels of global warming. The clerics and scholars appealed to “well-off nations and oil-producing states” to recognize their “moral obligation to reduce consumption so that the poor may benefit from what is left of the Earth’s non-renewable resources,” according to the declaration e-mailed Tuesday from Istanbul.

Why I Support the Divestment from Fossil Fuels Motion in the Anglican Diocese of Montreal

This article was written by Stewardship of the Environment Committee member Brooke Struck,  in support of a motion to divest from fossil fuels. Delegates and clergy will vote on the motion at the Synod of the Anglican Diocese of Montreal on October 16th 2015.
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The climate has always been changing, and life (including human life) has always had to adapt. Some organisms have succeeded, and have survived; others haven’t. But the present change in climate is much more rapid, exerting much stronger adaptive pressures on humanity and the rest of our living brethren on Earth. The main driver of climate change is carbon emissions from human sources, primarily since the Industrial Revolution. (For a very illustrative set of graphs about attributing climate change to various factors, recently assembled to include massive amounts of scientific data from wide-ranging sources click here).

Anglican Bishops Call for Urgent Action on Climate Justice

In March 2015, 17 Anglican bishops from six continents met at a summit in Cape Town, South Africa to discuss how Anglicans could respond to climate change. Their talks eventually led to a written declaration, The World is Our Host: A Call to Urgent Action for Climate Justice.

For the Rev. Canon Ken Gray—rector of the Church of the Advent in Colwood, B.C., co-chair of the Creation Matters Working Group for the Anglican Church of Canada, and secretary of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network—one word in the declaration seemed to strike a particular chord for readers: “urgent.”

“It is a theological and spiritual challenge for us now to face, immediately and urgently, concerning the way we have stewarded creation and the way we’re currently using it,” Gray said. “There, I think, is … growing distrust [in] neoliberal market economics as being able or willing to provide real solutions to real problems.”

WCC at International Divestment Conference in Paris

With just two months before the crucial United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21), an International Divestment Conference was held in Paris, on 1 September, where Rev. Henrik Grape represented the World Council of Churches (WCC) as a key speaker.

“The logic of divestment couldn’t be simpler: if it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage,” said Grape.

The conference focused on the growing movement to withdraw investments from fossil fuels that create emissions causing climate change, and to invest in sustainable energy.

Climate Change and Faith: Why We Are Asking the Diocese to Divest from Fossil Fuel

Careful research over many years has revealed a difficult truth: carbon emissions from human sources are the primary driver of climate change that is threatening ecosystems and people.1 This truth is difficult because since the 19th century carbon has fueled industry and it is now tightly woven into many aspects of our daily life. Transitioning to a low-carbon economy seems daunting. However, this is a necessary transition to make. Experts agree with very high confidence that climate change will “increase risks for people, assets, economies and ecosystems, including risks from heat stress, storms and extreme precipitation, inland and coastal flooding, landslides, air pollution, drought, water scarcity, sea level rise and storm surges . . . these risks are amplified for those lacking essential infrastructure and services or living in exposed areas.”2 Let us not allow cynicism and despair to lead to apathy, even in the midst of crisis we as people of faith are called to hopeful acts of self-giving love.

Statement from the Primate on the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

Dear friends,

People everywhere are becoming more and more urgently aware of the perilous state of much of creation, and our responsibility as stewards of the earth which we inhabit.

Earlier this month Pope Francis called the 1.25-billion members of the Catholic Church to annually observe on September 1 annual World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation. Since 1989 many Eastern Orthodox Christians have observed on that same date as a Day of Prayer for the Environment.

Religions are Making the Moral Argument in Support of Climate Action

In stark contrast to the disagreements that tear us apart, the world's religions appear to have coalesced around the understanding that we need to care for creation. Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and others have all made moral arguments in support of climate action.

Pope Francis has championed the battle against climate change via an Environmental Encyclical, and Muslim leaders across the world have echoed the moral call to engage with an Islamic Climate Declaration.

Here is an article that reviews some of the moral arguments:

Statement of Support for the Pope's Encyclical from the Anglican Bishop of Quebec

This statement of support for the Pope's environmental encyclical was written by the Right Reverend Dennis P Drainville, Anglican Bishop of Quebec.

My Dear Sisters and Brothers:

Today humanity is called by Pope Francis to the single largest and most critical mission ever required of life on planet Earth. That mission is to engage with the reality of Climate Change, change that is swiftly becoming Climate Crisis. Earth is “Our Common Home”, as His Holiness reminds us. This great gift was entrusted to us by our Creator. Yet we have sorely abused that trust. Only by accepting the mission of engaging with this crisis, the secular and the faithful, the rich and the poor, the rainbow of humanity working together, can we rescue, heal and renew Mother Earth, from the destruction we have wrought upon her.

Anglicans tell Eco-bishops: “Be prophetic, encourage ecological witness”

“What sort of leadership in response to global climate change would you hope to receive from a group of Anglican bishops and archbishops?”

This question garnered over 120 responses from Anglicans Communion-wide when posed early in July by the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN).

“I was surprised by the number of responses we received and by the obvious effort respondents put into their submissions. The question obviously struck a chord with many who engage in advocacy around environmental justice throughout the communion” ACEN’s secretary Canon Ken Gray said.

Archbishop of Capetown: "Climate Change is a Moral and a Justice Issue"

Fran Witt Interviews Archbishop Thabo Makgoba, the South African Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, and Global Climate Ambassador for the ACT Alliance.

Why did you get involved in the fight against climate change?

I engage on issues on the basis of scripture. I start from there as it is written: ‘Speak out for those who cannot speak. Speak out for the rights of all the destitute, speak out and judge righteously for the rights of the poor and needy.’

United Church of Canada Votes to Divest from Fossil Fuels

The church’s General Council voted 67% in favour of divesting from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.

The United Church of Canada voted to sell its fossil fuel assets and commit financially to transitioning to an economy based on renewable energy. The vote was held by the 42nd General Council, the United Church’s highest body, which meets triennially to determine the denomination's priorities. Climate justice, whereby the world's most vulnerable populations avoid disproportionate harms of climate chaos, stands as a clear priority for Canada's largest protestant denomination.

Pope Francis Creates Global Environmental Day of Prayer

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation will be celebrated on 1 September to give people opportunity to reflection upon ‘the adoption of appropriate lifestyles’

Pope Francis has established an annual day of global prayer “for the Care of Creation” to boost support for the environment, the Vatican said on Monday.

Catholic Sisters Show Support for Climate Action and the Clean Power Plan

On Wednesday August 5, 2015 the Sisters of Mercy brought students to Capitol Hill to support the Clean Power Plan. Thirty students and staff from seven colleges and universities sponsored by the Sisters of Mercy met with legislators to urge support for the Clean Power Plan and other measures to address climate change.

The students, who along with the Sisters of Mercy are inspired by Pope Francis’s encyclical letter. They prepared for those meetings at a panel discussion with Catholic and other faith justice leaders on Tuesday, August 4. The panel discussion focused on faith values surrounding climate change. What emerged from the discussion was a moral call to support the Clean Power Plan and the Green Climate Fund. They also wanted to advocate on behalf of communities of color in the US.

Science Adds Weight to the Pope's Environmental Encyclical

The position of Pope Francis on the environment is premised on good science. In essence he agrees with the salient findings of the IPCC. While the Pope may not be a working scientist, he does have a "titulo" degree (between a bachelors and a masters) in chemistry and he even worked for a time as a chemist. Perhaps most importantly he regularly consults with leading scientists.

It is important to understand the amount of scientific research that went into the Pope's encyclical. For many months those who were assisting the pope and the pope himself consulted with scientific experts in their respective fields.

The Environmental Encyclical of Pope Francis Calls for Revolution

The zeal surrounding the recently released encyclical of Pope Francis is as revolutionary in modern times as the message which it conveys. In his unprecedented encyclical called "Laudato Sii", or “"Praised Be", the pope has called for a " bold cultural revolution" to tackle environmental and social problems. Pope Francis has made waves around the world with his historic call for climate action. The Pontiff addressed the need for a revolutionary change in the hearts and minds of people in terms of the way we treat the Earth and each other.