Bright Now

Operation Noah launched the Bright Now campaign in September 2013. Our campaign for fossil free Churches was kickstarted by the Fossil Free Tour a month later, which we organised alongside 350.org and People & Planet. Bill McKibben, US environmentalist and author who started the fossil fuel divestment movement in the US in 2012, spoke at events attended by 1,000+ people in London, Birmingham and Glasgow.

As fossil fuel companies continue to overheat the planet, underinvest in renewables and explore for new oil and gas in violation of scientific warnings, 31 faith institutions from the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Italy and France joined today’s global divestment announcement, proclaiming no faith in fossil fuels by making their assets permanently off limits to fossil fuel companies. Today’s divestment announcement by faith institutions represents well over $2 billion in assets under management.

Operation Noah is delighted to announce that 22 of 42 Church of England dioceses have now made a full commitment to divest from fossil fuels. The Diocese of Canterbury, Diocese of Coventry, Diocese of Ely and Diocese of Hereford have recently confirmed that they will divest from fossil fuel companies by the end of December 2023 (Hereford) or have previously divested and will not be reinvesting in fossil fuels in future (Canterbury, Coventry and Ely). 

Since the start of 2023, the Church of England Dioceses of London, Lichfield and Rochester have all announced their divestment from fossil fuel companies, while the Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton announced its divestment today (28 February) – the very same day that Operation Noah called attention to Northampton’s lack of a divestment commitment, though the diocese was quick to note that it first made the decision to divest back in October 2022.

At the start of 2023, 40 dioceses across England and Wales (27 in the CofE and 13 in the Catholic Church) had yet to make a commitment to divest from fossil fuels. Making a divestment commitment involves committing to sell any investments in fossil fuel companies and not to invest in these companies in the future. This Lent, we will highlight a particular diocese on each of the 40 days and encourage Christians to take action, calling on Church leaders and investors to make changes.

On Tuesday 22 November, over 100 people joined us for a webinar launching our new report, Church Investment in Climate Solutions: Financing a Liveable Future.