Antinuclear

Australian universities need to divest from fossil fuels

We all need to divest from fossil fuels now – especially Australian universities, Guardian
John Quiggin, 2 Feb 17  The end of coal is inevitable but divestment will help accelerate the process, especially as we can’t rely on government to stabilise the environment. T

The movement to divest from the fossil fuel industry has grown rapidly over recent years in tandem with the urgent need to decarbonise the global economy. In Australia, divestment commitments have been made by local councils, charitable trusts, super funds and the Australian Capital Territory.

Universities have been a central focus of the campaign. Leading global universities such as Yale, Stanford and Stockholm have undertaken partial or complete divestment. In Australia, La Trobe and the Queensland University of Technology have made comprehensive divestment commitments, while others including the Australian National University, Monash and Sydney have taken substantial steps towards this goal.

While this progress is remarkable, only a minority of universities have so far adopted a policy of divestment. In some respects, indeed, global banks, driven by a mixture of concern for long-term image and the real prospect of losing their money in stranded assets, have gone further than the non-profit sector. The long list of banks that have withdrawn funding from Adani’s proposed Carmichael mine illustrates this point.

As 2017 begins, the urgency of the case for divestment has only increased. The capitulation of the Turnbull government to the climate science denialists within its ranks means that little new action can be expected from the government in the short run, despite its endorsement of the Paris agreement.

The election of the Trump administration in the US implies even greater obstacles at the global level. Trump has already revoked Barack Obama’s ban on the environmentally destructive Keystone XL pipeline and will doubtless take further measures, perhaps including withdrawal from the Paris agreement.

There is every reason to hope that the next elections will see both Trump and Malcolm Turnbull thrown out of office and that their replacements will return the US and Australia to sanity on climate change issues.

In the meantime, however, the fact that our governments will, at best, do nothing leaves the job in the hands of civil society: institutions, businesses and ordinary people. In such a climate the case for divestment has never been stronger.

A core argument for divestment is that extracting and burning the known reserves of coal, oil and gas using current technologies would result in catastrophic climate change. This change would include, at a minimum, massive species extinction and the destruction or radical transformation of all nature and the planet as we know it.

This fact creates a powerful ethical argument for withdrawing investment from corporations engaged in extracting and burning fossil fuels. Investing in such corporations is not a defensible option for institutions, like universities, that expect to endure for centuries. An investment strategy for a university must be premised on a sustainable future.

Similarly, the whole point of charitable trusts is to work for a better future. So, as with universities, it is the ethical presentation of the argument that should be most compelling……..

The term “clean coal” is a misnomer. Despite the impressive sounding description, these plants provide only a 30 to 40% reduction in emissions relative to standard coal-fired power plants. They aren’t as clean as gas-fired fossil fuel plants, let alone renewables. Other potential “clean coal” alternatives such as carbon capture and storage (CSS) have also been exposed as unviable.

After decades of work, there is exactly one operational power plant using CCS, the Boundary Dam project in Canada. Two more, both deeply troubled, are under construction in the United States. At a time when renewables are now cheaper than coal, investors are not going to stack up money for expensive, failed methods of coal generation…….. https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/2017/feb/02/we-all-need-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels-now-especially-australian-universities

February 6, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming