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Canadian institutions trail on fossil fuel divestment
The fossil fuel era may well be sputtering towards an imminent demise, but that message is muted in Canada. Amidst International action by Institutional Investors to distance themselves from fossil fuels, Canadian financial Institutions are not only trailing but backsliding by doubling down on oil sands Investments. Canada's largest investors are increasing Investments In the oil sands and prioritizing short-term financial returns ahead of the country's national climate targets. In doing so, they are falling to protect Canadians from the financial risks associated with assets highly vulnerable to global shocks.
Yet the Idea of divestment Isn't dead north of the 49th parallel. Here, by sector, Is a look at how numerous institutions are tackling (or attacking) the notion of ridding their Investment stream of fossil fuels.
DIVESTMENT
What started as a fringe student movement In the early 2010s has burgeoned into thefargest divestment campaign In history, eclipsing the Illustrious anti-Apartheid divestment campaign it succeeded. The idea of pressuring Institutions to rid themselves of climate-changing energy sources first gained a foothold with the public following author/activist Bill McKibben's seminal article "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math." In this 2012 feature, McKIbben articulated that if humanity hoped to hold global warming to under 2°C the majority of existing fossil fuel reserves could not be burned. The article became one of the most widely read In. Rolling Stone history, bringing the once radical message of divestment to a mainstream audience.
While early campaigns at Montreal's McGill University and Harvard faced criticism for unwarranted costs or negligible impact, the tide turned In 2014 when the Rockefeller Brothers Fund announced their commitment to divest from fos^H fuels to align their financial returns with philanthropic obligations. A recent study at University of Waterloo on prominent divestment annoucements (Dordi and Weber, 2019) finds that after the Rockefeller commitment was made, these types of ¿renouncements had greater Impacts and did more prolonged damége to fossil fuel share prices, showing that large-scale commitments to divestment could legitimize the idea.
Moreover, several comparisons of portfolios invested In and divested from fossil fuels published In prominent journals have shown shows that fossil free Investments are not only competitive but outperform traditional Indices. One such study from the University of...