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Divestment

Harvard ‘Pausing’ Investments In Some Fossil Fuels

By Oliver Milman for The Guardian - Harvard University is “pausing” investments in some fossil fuel interests following a five-year campaign by some students and environment groups to pressure the university to divest itself from coal, oil and gas. The elite university has come under fire for investing its $36bn endowment in a portfolio that contains fossil fuel companies and has until now resisted a concerted divestment campaign that has also targeted other US universities. However, Colin Butterfield, head of natural resources at the Harvard Management Company, said that climate change is a “huge problem” and that “for now, we are pausing minerals and oil and gas.” Butterfield said that Harvard indirectly invests in fossil fuels through outside funds, although the management company has previously signalled that it is moving away from coal due to a lack of profitability. “What I can tell you is, from my area, I could honestly say that I doubt – I can’t say never, because never say never – but I doubt that we would ever make a direct investment with fossil fuels,” he said.

Under Activist Pressure, Portland Agrees To End All Corporate Investments

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - In a sweeping move that follows a wave of divestment activism in Portland, Oregon, and across the country, the Portland City Council voted last week to pull all of the city's investments in corporate bonds and securities. The decision was a major victory for a broad coalition of activists who have pushed for the city to end its investments in corporations that have questionable records on the environment and human rights, including ties to the Dakota Access pipeline, the private prison industry and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. "As their decision stands now, it's permanent.… We can rest assured in Portland that our money won't be funding prisons, pipelines and the occupation of Palestine," said Amanda Aguilar Shank, an organizer with the racial justice group Enlace, in an interview with Truthout. Portland's City Council had originally considered adding Caterpillar, Wells Fargo, JP Morgan Chase and six other companies identified by a volunteer committee on socially responsible investing to a so-called "Do Not Buy" list

Pipeline Protestors Shut Down Citizens Bank

By The Fang Collective. Providence, RI – On Thursday morning three people with The FANG Collective blockaded the main entrance to the Citizens Bank global headquarters building in downtown Providence, RI to protest the Bank’s financing of Sunoco Logistics. Two people used a series of bike locks to lock their necks to two sets of doors, while another person used their body and several door stoppers to block a revolving door. The action follows the February launch of the “Shame On Citizens” campaign which calls attention to Citizens Bank’s role in a $2.5 billion line of credit to Sunoco Logistics, a pipeline company behind several controversial projects, including the Dakota Access Pipeline. Citizens contributed $72.5 million to this line of credit. Sunoco Logistics is in the process of fully merging with Energy Transfer Partners.

Seattle Divested Billions From Wells Fargo Over DAPL

By J. Gabriel WareJames Trimarco for Yes! Magazine - The movement to stop the controversial Dakota Access pipeline through financial activism took an important step forward today, as the Seattle City Council voted 9-0 to approve a bill that terminates a valuable city contract with Wells Fargo. The bank, one of the largest in the United States, has provided more than $450 million in credit to the companies building the pipeline. The move makes Seattle the first city to divest from a financial institution because of its role in the Dakota Access pipeline, a $3.8 billion project that would run from western North Dakota to Illinois, and is fiercely opposed by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Wells Fargo is one of 17 banks directly financing the project.

Defund DAPL Spreads Across Indian Country As Tribes Divest

By Frances Madeson for Counter Punch - “Many people are, rightfully, afraid that executive support [President Trump’s] now means that the pipelines are full steam ahead,” said Melanie Yazzie, co-founder of The Red Nation, an activist coalition dedicated to the liberation of Native people from capitalism and colonialism. She views divestment as obstruction—the good kind—something akin to water protectors locking down on construction equipment and as a continuation of the widespread resistance that has united under the cry of #NoDAPL. “The investors and financiers will not move forward if the projects are deemed financially unfavorable,” Yazzie said.

Seattle City Council Committee Votes To Divest From Pro-DAPL Bank

By Emma Niles for Truth Dig - Council Bill 118883 was proposed by Kshama Sawant, the only socialist member currently sitting on Seattle’s City Council. “If Seattle divests from Wells Fargo, it will greatly fuel the inspiring nationwide struggle against the Dakota Access pipeline and the oil lobby,” Sawant said at a rally prior to Wednesday’s vote. “I urge council members to support this legislation as part of Seattle’s fightback against Trump and the billionaire class.” The legislation passed the finance committee Wednesday and, according to Sawant, will go to Seattle’s full City Council for a vote on Feb. 6. Still, many saw Wednesday’s vote as a decisive victory.

An ‘Undeniable Success’: Divestment From Fossil Fuels Passes $5 Trillion

By Andrea Germanos for Common Dreams - The value of funds making the commitment has doubled in size since September 2015. Marking the divestment movement's "undeniable success," a new report shows the value of funds controlled by individuals and institutions who have vowed to dump their fossil fuels assets now surpasses $5 trillion. 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben said the "news is mammoth." The report (pdf) by Arabella Advisors for the Divest-Invest Network shows that the value of global funds making the commitment—now at about $5.2 trillion—has doubled in size since September 2015...

Portland Leads Way To Nationwide Divest From Dakota Pipeline And Private Prisons?

By Mike Ludwig for Truthout - Not long after returning home from the Dakota Access pipeline protests at Standing Rock, Oregon resident Ali Pullen was testifying before the Portland City Council in an effort to dump several large corporations from the city's list of contractors and investment interests. Pullen, who had traveled to Standing Rock with a delegation of people of color from Portland, specifically testified about Caterpillar, a major construction contractor for Dakota Access, and Wells Fargo, one of 17 banks financing a pipeline that activists are now risking life and limb to stop.

Protesters Occupy Police Unions, Demand Investment In Black Communities

By Staff of RT - Black Lives Matter protesters taking aim at police union offices forced a shutdown of one in Washington, DC. Simultaneously in Detroit, activists chained themselves to a police station to demand the ouster of an officer who shot dead a 7-year-old in 2010. Protests, held by Black Youth Project 100 (BYP100) and Black Lives Matter, hit several cities across the US on Wednesday. July 20 would have been the 14th birthday of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, who was shot dead in a SWAT raid on her house in May 2010.

Student Activist Victory: U Mass Divests From Fossil Fuel

By Robert P. Connolly for UMass Amherst - BOSTON – The University of Massachusetts today became the first major public university to divest its endowment from direct holdings in fossil fuels. The decision was made by a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors of the UMass Foundation, a separate not-for-profit corporation that oversees an endowment whose value was $770 million at the end of the last fiscal year. The decision followed a series of developments that signaled the University community’s desire to fight climate change.

‘Neutral Is Not Acceptable’:Protests For Colleges To Go Fossil Free

By Nika Knight for Common Dreams - A series of sit-ins and protests urging universities to divest their endowments from fossil fuels gained new strength this week, as students at the University of Montana, Vassar College, Northern Arizona University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison launched their own actions to combat climate change. Two nights in a row, on Monday and Tuesday multiple students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) were arrested for taking part in a nonviolent action demanding their school divest from oil and gas companies.

Newsletter: Ending The Political Charade

By Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese. This week, on Earth Day, representatives from 130 countries gathered at the United Nations in New York City to sign the climate treaty agreed upon in Paris last December. As they smiled for the camera and promised to do their best to hold the temperature down, climate activists posted an open letter stating that it is too late, the climate emergency is already here. Leading up to the signing of the Paris Treaty this week were actions to stop the advance of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Many events to mark the one year anniversary are taking place this week and the next in Baltimore to remember the uprising. Erica Chenoweth, the author of "How Civil Resistance Works", writes that elections both locally and globally are being shaped by nonviolent resistance. In the US, no matter who is elected president in the November election, it will be critical for those who have been activated to continue to organize and visibly protest.

Undeterred Students Keep Up Second Week of Divestment Sit-Ins

By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - Students at three major American universities are digging in for a series of prolonged sit-ins and risking suspension and arrest to demand that their schools divest from fossil fuels. NYU's protest, which launched Monday, saw students with NYU Divest occupying the administrative elevator and lobby of the school's Bobst Library to demand the Board of Trustees holds a vote on divestment at its next meeting and allows the group to give them a presentation.

Another Divestment Campaign Against Nuclear Gets Its First Victory

By Martin Fleck for PSR - Mayor Denise Simmons of Cambridge, Massachusetts announced on April 2 that by unanimous City Council vote, Cambridge will divest its $1 billion pension fund from "any entities that are involved in or support the production or upgrading of nuclear weapons systems." Mayor Simmons announced divestment at an MIT symposium, Reducing the Dangers of Nuclear War, organized by The Future of Life Institute, where PSR Board Member and IPPNW Co-president Ira Helfand, MD delivered a plenary talk on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.

Yale Divests $10 million From Fossil Fuels

By Ayla Besemer and Finnegan Schick for Yale News - In a Tuesday letter to Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility, Chief Investment Officer David Swensen reported that after months of talking with Yale’s external investment managers about the potential risks associated with investments in coal and oil, around $10 million of the endowment has been removed from three publicly traded fossil fuel producers. Tuesday’s message follows a letter penned by Swensen in 2014, in which he asked Yale’s investment managers to consider climate change in their investment choices.
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