What is divestment ?
- To have a chance to limit global warming to 2°C, we can burn another 565 Gigatons of carbon (or 1000 Gigatons according to more optimistic calculations).
- The reserves of petrol, gas and coal announced by the fossil fuel companies correspond to 2795 Gigatons of carbon.
So, if the fossil fuel companies sell all their reserves, we will face catastrophic global warming.
If we can't burn all the reserves (and sooner or later that will happen), that means that their financial value is overestimated.
The disinvestment movement propose that all investors, big and small, sell their their shares in fossil fuel companies, for several reasons :
- The financial value is overestimated, the Bank of England has warned of a carbon bubble.
- It will encourage investments in renewable energy and energy savings.
- Some fossil fuel companies finance climate deniers.
