Financial outcomes from divesting from fossil fuels

Photo that shows a closeup of a person's hands stacking coins in increasingly larger stacks, with seedlings on top of each stack.

Screening out fossil fuel stocks has not had a significant impact on returns for global, well-diversified portfolios — in fact over the past 12 years, an index without fossil fuels outperformed its most similar index with fossil fuels, and two separate studies by found that divestment actions taken by funds worldwide have passed the prudence tests required of fiduciaries. An additional academic study spanning decades that included previous oil price spikes found no significant difference in performance between portfolios with and without fossil fuels.

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Rally for CalSTRS divestment

On Friday, June 12, the Investment Committee of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) meets in West Sacramento. Divestment activists will rally at CalSTRS headquarters to urge that the committee begin the process of divestment from fossil fuels. It’s about time. Over the years, CalSTRS has established an enviable record of concern for the environment. The…

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Why coal divestment is important

Our goal at Fossil Free California is to reduce investments in all fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—and to publicize their destructive effects. But some institutions, resistant to total divestment, are willing to consider divesting only from coal. Is that a position we can support? Emphatically yes! A giant step Divesting from coal is a giant step…

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Rudolph: Climate change and public health

Golden Gate Bridge

On Global Divestment Day, 60 climate activists launched the Fossil Free California campaign in front of CalPERS headquarters in Sacramento.Three speakers addressed the need for divestment, Dr. Linda Rudolph, Jane Vosburg, and Russell Kilday-Hicks. Dr. Rudolph, the first speaker, is a CalPERS retiree who worked for 30 years as a preventive medicine physician in both local and state…

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Does shareholder engagement work?

This post is by Brett Fleishman, senior analyst at 350.org. Big investors like the California Public Employees’ Retirement Fund (CalPERS) are faced with a difficult choice. They can divest completely from fossil fuel companies to make a public statement about climate change. Or they can hold on to them and attempt, as shareholders, to influence…

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We don't need more fossil fuels

Exploration for new fossil fuel deposits should stop now, because we have already discovered far more than we can safely burn. That means no fracking, no oil rigs in the Arctic, no tar sands. It also means no investment in fossil fuel companies as long as they continue to use their profits to “drill, baby, drill” —…

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A call to action for the climate crisis

Russell Kilday-Hicks is a climate activist from San Francisco State University and vice president of the California State Employees Association. This is a letter he sent to fellow CSEA members. Dear State Employee Colleagues, Please allow me a few minutes of your time to call attention to the looming crisis for our children and grandchildren…

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No coal in your stocking

Burning any fossil fuels is bad for the planet. We must stop extracting long-buried carbon from underground and spewing it into the atmosphere, creating a suicidal heat shield. But of all the types of fossil fuels, coal is the worst. It’s dirty, unhealthful, and carbon-intensive. It’s also, unfortunately, readily available and transportable, and it’s easy…

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Divest for financial security

Public policymakers, when they look carefully at the facts about climate change, usually conclude that it’s essential to divest from fossil fuels. The slide toward climate chaos must be resisted with every weapon, and it doesn’t make sense for public leaders to remain invested in products that are destroying the world they are trying to…

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Teacher to CalSTRS: Divest!

Jane Vosburg is a member of CalSTRS who campaigns for divestment with 350 Sonoma County and Educators for Fossil Free Divestment. On November 7, she spoke to the CalSTRS Investment Committee meeting in West Sacramento. Thank you for allowing me this time to comment, and thank you, Sharon Hendricks and Paul Rosenstiel, for requesting educational…

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