Bright Now

The Church of Scotland voted narrowly against divestment from fossil fuel companies at its General Assembly in Edinburgh yesterday.

In recent years, the Church of Scotland has debated how to align its concerns about climate change with its investment policy – without a clear conclusion.

Christian Aid, Operation Noah, Friends of the Earth Scotland and Eco-congregation Scotland have produced a joint briefing to inform Church of Scotland members about how the Church can better address these concerns by divesting from fossil fuels.

At the beginning of the Season of Creation, Operation Noah invited local churches to join the growing fossil fuel divestment movement. We are delighted that three more churches have now taken this step.

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This is an exciting time in the campaign for fossil free Churches. Arguments for divestment are now being taken seriously in many quarters: in just a few weeks, we’ve seen the following signs of the times. Read more

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has voted to divest from companies involved in the extraction and sale of coal and tar sands. It asked its investors to engage with other fossil fuel companies and agreed that the Church and Society Council should report back its findings to the General Assembly in 2018. Read more

by Ben Kurzman, youth activist

I’m representing a group of teenage Christians who recently took first steps into the climate movement. We are so concerned by climate change that we are taking on the fossil fuel companies. And this is why we are calling for the Church of Scotland to divest from the fossil fuel industry.

Climate change is having a real and devastating human impact right now. This June I was a delegate at the Global Power Shift Youth Climate Conference in Istanbul. I had the good fortune to make friends with Starling Konainao of the Solomon Islands and his stories put climate change in perspective. Read more