8
Jul
2018
91 Anglican bishops and clergy support call for divestment at General Synod
13 Anglican bishops and 78 clergy have signed a letter calling on the Church of England’s General Synod to support an amendment on fossil fuel divestment set to be tabled by the Diocese of Oxford today during a debate on the Church’s approach to tackling climate change.
Signatories of the letter include Ellinah Wamukoya, Bishop of Swaziland and Chair of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network; Andrew Proud, Bishop of Reading; Ruth Worsley, Bishop of Taunton; and Apimeleki Qiliho, Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Polynesia and retired Bishop of Fiji.
The letter, reproduced in full below, casts doubt on the strategy of engagement with oil and gas companies currently being pursued by the Church of England, saying:
“as companies such as Shell and BP are still pursuing business plans that would lead to 3-5°C+ of global warming, there is little sign that notice is being taken”
Pointing to the refusal of oil and gas companies to bring their investment plans in line with the Paris Agreement, the letter urges Synod members to vote in favour of the amendment which
“reflects the urgency of action required to prevent the worst impacts of climate change”
The amendment is being proposed by the Bishop of Oxford, Steven Croft, who spoke on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier this week. The debate with the Bishop of Manchester can be listened to here, starting at 2:54:28, and the Bishop of Oxford’s blog responding to frequently asked questions on the issue can be read here.
A growing chorus of voices
This weekend, Operation Noah met with Adam Matthews, Director of Ethics and Engagement at the Church of England, outside the General Synod chamber in York. We passed on the message sent by the thousands of you who have signed our petition calling for the Church of England to divest from fossil fuels.
An increasing number of organisations have also expressed their support for the Oxford amendment, including Christian Aid, Tearfund, USPG and the John Ray Initiative , with Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, writing in The Telegraph this weekend on why the Oxford amendment should be backed by Synod members.
The call for divestment of the Church of England’s fossil fuel holdings follows a similarly worded motion passed at the Methodist Conference last year and a vote in favour of full divestment at the Church of Ireland’s General Synod this year.
Our recent report, Fossil Free Churches, sets out the ethical, scientific and financial reasons behind Operation Noah’s support for fossil fuel divestment, and you can watch a short video summarising the issues at play in the General Synod debate here.
Full letter to the Church of England General Synod
From the Bishops of Swaziland, Dorchester, Reading, Buckingham, Wolverhampton, Dunwich, and Taunton, and 84 others
This Sunday, the Church of England’s General Synod will debate future investments in oil and gas companies. This will provide a crucial opportunity for the Church to demonstrate credible leadership on one of the most important moral issues of our time.
While the Church of England disinvested from companies involved in the extraction of coal and tar sands in 2015, it is seeking to bring about change through “engagement” with oil and gas companies. Yet, as companies such as Shell and BP are still pursuing business plans that would lead to 3-5+°C of global warming, there is little sign that notice is being taken.
At Shell’s annual meeting in May this year, only 5.5 per cent of investors supported a resolution calling on the company to set emission-reduction targets in line with the Paris Agreement.
The diocese of Oxford is proposing an amendment at the Synod calling on the Church of England to disinvest from any fossil-fuel company “which is not on an unequivocal path by 2020 to aligning its business investment plan with the Paris Agreement to restrict global warming to well below 2°C”. This goes further than the weaker motion proposed by church investors.
We urge Synod members to vote in favour of this amendment, which reflects the urgency of action required to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. It gives oil and gas companies time to bring their business investment plans in line with the Paris Agreement. It also sets robust and clear criteria for disinvestment by the Church, beginning in 2020, thus intensifying the Church’s engagement efforts.
By passing this amendment, the Synod will play its part in accelerating the clean-energy transition. It will show true leadership on the urgent issue of climate change both within the UK and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Yours faithfully,
David Atkinson – Southwark (Assistant Bishop in Diocese of Southwark)
Graham Cray – York (Assistant Bishop in Diocese of York)
Michael Doe – Southwark (Assistant Bishop in Diocese of Southwark)
Colin Fletcher – Oxford (Bishop of Dorchester)
Clive Gregory – Lichfield (Bishop of Wolverhampton)
Mike Harrison – St Edmundsbury and Ipswich (Bishop of Dunwich)
Robert Paterson – Hereford/Worcester (Assistant Bishop in Dioceses of Hereford and Worcester)
Andrew Proud – Oxford (Bishop of Reading)
Apimeleki Qiliho – Polynesia (Assistant Bishop in Diocese of Polynesia and retired Bishop of Fiji)
Maurice Sinclair – Birmingham (Assistant Bishop in Diocese of Birmingham)
Ellinah Wamukoya – Swaziland (Bishop of Swaziland and Chair of Anglican Communion Environmental Network)
Alan Wilson – Oxford (Bishop of Buckingham)
Ruth Worsley – Bath and Wells (Bishop of Taunton)
Rachel Mash – Cape Town, South Africa (Environmental Coordinator of Anglican Church of Southern Africa)
Tim Stratford – Leicester (Archdeacon of Leicester)
John Hawkins – London (Archdeacon of Hampstead)
OIivia Graham – Oxford (Archdeacon of Berkshire)
Malcolm Chamberlain – Sheffield (Archdeacon of Sheffield & Rotherham)
Martin Webster – Salisbury (Retired Archdeacon of Harlow)
Jane Haslam – Bath and Wells
Mike Haslam – Bath and Wells
Philip Hawthorn – Bath and Wells
Julia Hicks – Bath and Wells
Jonathan Morris – Bath and Wells
Graham Owen – Bath and Wells
Rosalind Sellers – Bath and Wells
Catherine Sourbut – Bath and Wells
Debbie Collins – Birmingham
John Nightingale – Birmingham
Al Barrett – Birmingham
Andrew Lenox-Conyngham – Birmingham
Peter Sellick – Birmingham
Derek French – Blackburn
John Rodwell – Blackburn
Ed Saville – Blackburn
Stephen Saxby – Chelmsford
Debbie Beer – Chichester
Mark Betson – Chichester
David Farey – Chichester
Peter Owen-Jones – Chichester
Adam Ransom – Chichester
Graham Coles – Coventry
Tom Ambrose – Ely
Elizabeth Bussman – Europe
Simon Holland – Exeter
Simon Howard – Exeter
Val Thorne – Gloucester
Cate Williams – Gloucester
Susan Bolan – Guildford
Lesley Crawley – Guildford
Alan Crawley – Guildford
Stuart Thomas – Guildford
John Bennett TSSF – Leeds
Ann Broxham – Leeds
Debby Plummer – Leeds
Keith Hebden – Leicester
Andrew Quigley – Leicester
Gillian Straine – London
John Hughes – Manchester
Janet Appleby – Newcastle
Helen Budd – Norwich
Graham Kirk-Spriggs – Norwich
James Ridge – Norwich
Hilary Campbell – Oxford
Barbara Doubtfire – Oxford
Christopher Evans – Oxford
Graeme Fancourt – Oxford
Darrell Hannah – Oxford
Margot Hodson – Oxford
Mark Laynesmith – Oxford
Hugh Lee – Oxford
Tina Molyneux – Oxford
Ainsley Swift – Oxford
Jo Williams – Oxford
Terence Winrow – Oxford
Jimmy Holden – Salisbury
Mike Perry – Salisbury
Ruth Schofield – Salisbury
Michael Bayley – Sheffield
David Goss – Sheffield
Nicholas Jowett – Sheffield
Malcolm Liles – Sheffield
Mark Newitt – Sheffield
Aaron Kennedy – Southwark
Rachel Pennant – St Albans
Cheryl Collins – St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
Stephen Morley – St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
Claire McIlroy – Truro
Francis Buxton – Wales
David Parry – Wales
Ben Chase – Winchester