Fossil fuel divestment is a rational response to the industry’s “distressing” inattention to climate change, a former chairman of Royal Dutch Shell said last week.
“I have met precious few people who think we will stay within 2ºC,” Sir Mark Moody-Stuart told a dinner event organized by Carbon Trust. “But one encouraging sign is a much higher level of interest from investors.”
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His “striking remarks are the most supportive of divestment made by any senior figure in the fossil fuel business,” The Guardian reports. “They will also be chastening for Shell. The company is currently positioning itself to be part of the solution to climate change rather than part of the problem, but faces criticism of its Arctic and tar sands operations.”
Moody-Stuart said it was a “perfectly rational decision” for major oil and gas companies to drop their coal assets in the 1990s. Now, “if you think your money can be used somewhere else, you should switch it. Selective divestment or portfolio-switching is actually what investors should be doing.”
