Bright Now

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.

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.

UPDATE: Our next Global Divestment Announcement – originally planned for next month – has been pushed back to April 2023 to coincide with Earth Day celebrations and give institutions more time to coordinate divestment commitments. Rescheduling also means our next announcement will take place during a crucial period for the Church of England, which has pledged to divest from all oil and gas companies not aligned with the Paris Agreement by July 2023.

Local churches have long been an integral part of the fossil fuel divestment movement. As church communities align their investments with their values by divesting from fossil fuel companies, they help to remove the social licence of oil, gas and coal companies and encourage other organisations and institutions to follow suit.

Today, in a direct challenge to the fossil fuel industry’s dangerous expansion plans and increasingly empty rhetoric on climate, 35 faith institutions from seven countries – including five Church of England dioceses, two Catholic dioceses in the UK and a Church of England cathedral – announced their divestment from fossil fuel companies. In total, 19 of the 35 institutions joining the announcement are from the UK.

Together with our friends at the Laudato Si’ Movement, World Council of Churches, Green Anglicans and GreenFaith, Operation Noah is delighted to launch the next global divestment announcement for faith organisations, which will take place on Tuesday 5 July 2022.