By Lella Lowe
I am a member of Episcopal Church of the Redeemer in Mobile, Alabama, in the Diocese of the Central Gulf Coast. Deeply concerned about the climate crisis, I have been active with the environmental stewardship team at my church and the diocesan Commission on the Integrity of Creation, and I helped to form the ecumenical group, Gulf Coast Creation Care. The opinions expressed in the following article are solely my own.
For both moral and financial reasons, I am calling upon Episcopal clergy to push the Church Pension Group to divest from fossil fuels as an urgently needed response to the crisis.
What is the history of fossil fuel divestment?
In 2012, the organization 350.org, formed by Bill McKibben and a group of university friends, started a campaign called “Fossil Free” to encourage public and private institutions to divest from fossil fuel stocks in order to save the planet. This effort was based on the successful disinvestment campaign from the 1980s that was used to pressure South Africa to end apartheid. The value of institutions that have currently committed to fossil fuel divestment is over $40 trillion, with faith-based organizations comprising nearly 36% of that total. One of the latest commitments is from the Church of England Pension Board, which announced on June 22, 2023, its intention to fully disinvest from oil and gas stocks that weren’t living up to the 2015 Paris Agreement to decarbonize.
Where does The Episcopal Church stand on fossil fuel divestment?
- In 2015, The Episcopal Church voted at General Convention (Resolution 2015-C045) to divest from fossil fuels and reinvest in clean renewable energy, calling especially on The Episcopal Church Endowment Fund and The Episcopal Church Foundation to divest/reinvest. The Church Pension Fund (the largest denominational fund, currently valued at $17 billion) was not included in the final version of this resolution.
- At the 79th General Convention in 2018, with Resolution 2018-A020, the body asked for reports as to how divestment had gone over the past three years, since the adoption of 2015-C045, and again “urged” church institutions and individuals to talk about divestment as a way to address climate change. The resolution dropped any specific mention of the Endowment Fund or the Church Foundation, and the Church Pension Group was “commended for their passion in responding to climate change” (!), but it was noted that they were more concerned about the financial performance of their portfolio than the moral issue of withholding funds from future fossil fuel development. And they asked for a report at the next General Convention in three years.
- At the 80th General Convention in 2022, the wording of Resolution 2022-A089 changed to reflect concerns for just transitions for communities affected by divestment from fossil fuels, and called out the Church Pension Group specifically, “urging” them to divest from all fossil fuel companies by 2025 and reinvest in renewable energy. They also encouraged all dioceses and congregations to explore the moral and ethical benefits of divestment.
- In October 2023, the Executive Council of the General Convention of The Episcopal Church endorsed a resolution in support of a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty “to transform lives by phasing out fossil fuel production and the reliance on fossil fuels by the parties to the Paris [Climate] Accords.”
Why should CPG divest from fossil fuels?
Aside from the moral considerations of continuing to support fossil fuel production with our investment funds, a recent study has concluded that fossil fuel investments have lost millions of dollars for the pension funds that invested in them. In addition to the opportunities lost over the past decade, the future of fossil fuels will inevitably be one of decline, resulting in stranded assets for the funds that continue to hold these investments, as the rest of the world moves on to a low-carbon economy.
At the conclusion of the COP28 climate summit in December 2023, nearly 200 countries signed on to “an agreement that signals the ‘beginning of the end’ of the fossil fuel era by laying the ground for a swift, just and equitable transition, underpinned by deep emissions cuts and scaled-up finance.” The deal, struck after two weeks of negotiations, is intended to send a strong message to investors and policymakers that the world must part ways with fossil fuels (Reuters, 1/17/24).
I am a lay person, with no pension money invested with The Episcopal Church, but I have a healthy grasp of my moral responsibility to do whatever I can to protect this planet for future generations and for the marginalized and the voiceless. I am baffled by the Church Pension Group’s reticence to “just do it”—divest!
At last year’s Wild Goose Festival, when Bill McKibben and Diana Butler Bass spoke about the divestment movement, they pointed out that the denomination with the largest holdings—The Episcopal Church Pension Group – had yet to vote for divestment. They explained that the only way CPG will divest is if those with a vested interest in the fund—primarily the clergy of The Episcopal Church—rise up and demand that it happen. If we are truly hearing The Episcopal Church’s call to consider our moral obligation to address the climate emergency, if we understand that any short-term financial gain in fossil fuel investments will be wiped out over the longer term, and if we realize that continued investment in fossil fuels is propping up an industry whose product is destroying life on earth, then we must urge CPG to divest its holdings in fossil fuels.
I urge all Episcopal clergy to make their moral position clear and to insist that the Church Pension Group divest from fossil fuels.
Lella Lowe