Divestment
Divestment is intentionally removing investments from a particular company, industry, or sector. For example, a company can divest from the fossil fuel industry and extractivism in favour of moving towards a regenerative economy. In the university context, this means selling the university’s stocks, bonds, and other forms of invested funds in a particular industry, and foregoing future investments in that industry - Divest Canada Coalition [1] , adapted by Michelle Xie [2]
Examples of divestment campaigns
- The banks divestment movement calls for Canada's major banks to divest their investment portfolios from fossil fuels.
- The pension divestment movement calls for pension plans, such as the The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, to divest their investment portfolios from fossil fuels.
- The student divestment calls for universities to divest their investment portfolios from fossil fuels.
Do divestment campaigns work?
Canadian universities that have committed to full or partial divestment include Laval University, Concordia University,, University of British Columbia, University of Guelph and the University of Montreal. 1000 other institutions globally have divested $14 trillion from the fossil fuel industry.
While the divestment movement alone may not solve the climate crisis, divestment is a part of the broader ecosystem of climate action. Divestment is considered a critical step in shifting how we run our society from principles of extraction to principles of generation. Some critics suggest that if one big financial player pulls their funds from the fossil fuel industry, another big player will take their place. Divestment takes aim at the social license to operate of the fossil fuel industry, that is, the level of ongoing approval a community gives to the industry. [3] Financial support is a key pillar that gives power to the fossil fuel industry. Loss of a partnership impacts their pillars of support by stigmatizing the fossil fuel industry. This propels the transition away from a fossil fuel-based economy to one fuelled by sustainable renewable energy.
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