We must not invest in the old fossil fuels
I’M not a member of the Green Party, Greenpeace or even Friends of the Earth, but I am human and am interested in the world we leave my children and grandchildren.
In Bonn, the UN Climate Change Conference opened last week presided over by Fiji.
In the UK attention is (understandably) taken up with political scandals, Brexit, and the instability of our government.
The Bonn conference has the theme of aiming for further, faster ambition together.
You don’t have to be a climate boffin to appreciate this is necessary as year-on-year weather gets more erratic and extreme, and all the more so for those living nearer the equator and on low lying islands in the Pacific. But sadly not everyone is so committed to tackling this fundamental civilisation-changing crisis.
But Manchester has something to contribute by putting its own house in order – as Jim Battle said when deputy council leader: “Manchester was the cradle of the (carbon fueled) industrial revolution; we therefore have a responsibility to tackle climate change.”
There are many warm-words statements and resolutions, but are we actually serious about acting?
We talk the talk, but do we walk the walk? Whilst MMU continues to rank as a leader amongst universities for sustainability, students and academics will be protesting once more down the road at the University of Manchester calling for it to fully divest its reputed £9.5m from fossil fuel industries.
And the last week saw the publication of a report which showed the Greater Manchester Pension Fund has a total of £1.758m invested in Fossil Fuel Investments.
Quite apart from this ‘fuelling the fire’ of climate change, these investments withhold funding from developing future technologies and green jobs.
With 80 per cent of already known fossil resources being unexploitable without run-way climate change they are also potentially ‘stranded assets’- ‘assets that have suffered from unanticipated or premature write-downs, devaluations or conversion to liabilities.’
If the uni and GMPF haven’t got out, they will suffer major loss, radically impairing their ability to fund their causes. Jobs will be lost and pensions of thousands of council workers be short-changed unless someone picks up the tab.
Those responsible for these institutions need to act now. F Alfredsman