• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says July 4, 2022
‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation July 4, 2022
Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History July 4, 2022
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Climate & Society Community Climate Finance

Church of England Faces Pressure to Divest as Campaigners Connect Senior Leaders to Fossil Industry

February 25, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes

19
SHARES
 

The Church of England is facing stiff criticism for its continuing investments in colossal fossils ExxonMobil, Shell, TotalÉnergies, and BP and biofuel giant Drax, with campaigners pointing to close ties between some church leadership, fossil firms, and some of the banks that continue to prop them up.

“The revelations come as the church faces renewed pressure to fully divest from fossil fuels after its biannual meeting earlier this month, where climate campaigners expressed frustration at the church’s ongoing stakes in oil and gas,” DeSmog reports.

In 2018, the church’s General Synod set a 2023 deadline to divest “from all oil and gas companies that are not in line with the Paris Agreement by 2023,” the news story states. “Yet three years later, the church continues to hold shares in Shell, TotalÉnergies, and ExxonMobil—all of which are planning significant fossil fuel expansion.”

Church officials decided to continue their “engagement” with Exxon after it announced a new climate plan that offered no promise of actual emission reductions, followed by a “net-zero” roadmap that ignored the lion’s share of its emissions.

“Our decision to maintain our Exxon holding is part of our ongoing engagement with the company, which saw a successful campaign to replace 25% of their board,” said Bess Joffe, head of responsible investment at the Church Commissioners for England. “We will hold Exxon shares for now to keep our seat at the table. This will give the new directors time to work with their board colleagues to bring about change and address the urgent climate crisis.”

Joffe said the church would dump Exxon if it failed to “demonstrate sufficient progress”, particularly on its massive Scope 3, or downstream, emissions. But she added that “the Church is in the conversion business. We believe that no one is free from sin—including ourselves—but that both people and institutions have the capacity to change and do better.”

“We want to achieve a net-zero world, not a net-zero portfolio for the Church Commissioners,” added First Church Estates Commissioner Alan Smith, a former head of global risk strategy at investment bank HSBC, which DeSmog says has financed more than £81 billion/US$110 billion in fossil fuel activity since the 2015 Paris Agreement.

“As Christians we should engage with those who are not-yet-perfect,” Smith said.

The Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) called the church’s position a “betrayal”, DeSmog reports, after the Archibishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the institution would “disinvest immediately” from companies that fail to meet its climate test.

DeSmog points to close connections between the Church of England and the fossil sector.

• Welby worked in the oil industry for more than a decade in the 1970s and 80s.

• Clive Mather, who has chaired the church’s pensions board since 2019, is a former Shell CEO who oversaw the company’s expansion into the Canadian tar sands/oil sands.

• Richard Hubbard, chair of the board’s pensions committee, spent nearly 30 years at BP, ultimately serving as director of the company’s European cross-border pension plan.

• David Nussbaum, a member of the church’s Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG), is on the board of Drax, whose biomass plant in North Yorkshire is the country’s biggest single source of carbon pollution.

• EIAG member Dami Lalude previously worked in the natural resources group at investment banker Goldman Sachs, which has poured more than $100 billion into the fossil fuel industry since the Paris Agreement, according to BankTrack research released in 2020.

The Church declined to comment on those connections, DeSmog writes. “The Church of England’s national investing bodies have taken the view that they have more influence on high-carbon industries by being in the room rather than by divesting,” a spokesperson said. “By engaging with high carbon emitting companies, we can address the climate crisis and bring about real world change.”

YCCN’s Chris Manktelow countered that “engagement is not working. The Church of England needs to fully divest from these companies to care for God’s creation and show moral leadership.”



in Bioenergy, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Community Climate Finance, Oil & Gas, UK & Europe

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Wikimedia Commons
Oil & Gas

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
43
angela n./flickr
United States

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
40
opinion polling gender green recovery climate action
Media, Messaging, & Public Opinion

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
46

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

opinion polling gender green recovery climate action

Conservative Women Far More Likely Than Men to Support Green Transition, EcoAnalytics Research Finds

July 4, 2022
46
U.S. Navy/picryl

Montreal to Host New NATO Climate Centre as Military Analyst Confronts Global ‘Hyperthreat’

July 4, 2022
45
Wikimedia Commons

BREAKING: No Public Finance for East Coast LNG Projects, Wilkinson Says

July 4, 2022
43
angela n./flickr

‘Climate Math Gets Harder’ as Radicalized Supreme Court Upends U.S. Carbon Regulation

July 4, 2022
40
Maurits90/Wikimedia Commons

San Francisco Commuter Train Derailed by Scorching Track Temperatures, Extreme Heat

July 4, 2022
30
Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

July 3, 2022
457

Recent Posts

EdmondMeinfelder/flickr

Dire Living Conditions, Climate-Driven Heat Wave Produce Deadliest Human Smuggling Event in U.S. History

July 4, 2022
17
Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons

Youth Climate Case Moves to Top Tribunal in European Court

July 4, 2022
20
Seci/wikimedia commons

Saudi Aramco Talks Net-Zero, Plans to Boost Production Through 2035

July 4, 2022
11
Keith Weller/Wikimedia Commons

U.S. Methane Plan Gives Big Ag a Free Pass

July 4, 2022
13
Fadi Hage/wikimedia commons

Indoor Farming Revolution Comes with Significant Carbon Cost

July 4, 2022
16
Mont SUTTON snow terrain

Southern Quebec Towns Scramble for Solutions as Water Sources Dwindle

July 4, 2022
21
Next Post
Noah Brooks for Ministry of Defense of Ukraine/flickr

Putin’s War in Ukraine Displaces Climate as Top Concern, Drives Oil Prices to 8-Year High

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}