Posted in:
News
Date posted: 6 May 2020
Wednesday 6 May 2020
Contact James Buchanan: 07801 570 653 / james.buchanan@operationnoah.org
Report available:
Interviews available / Quote from Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams below
A new report from Operation Noah, the Christian climate change
charity, is calling on Churches in the UK to urgently divest from fossil fuels
in response to the climate emergency.
The report, ‘Church
investments in major oil companies: Paris compliant or Paris defiant?’,
shows the gap between the business plans of major oil companies and the Paris
Agreement targets, which commits to limit global average temperature increases
to well below 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels, and aims for 1.5°C.
The report draws on research from a variety of key sources,
including Carbon Tracker’s Breaking
the Habit report and the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) 2020
State of Transition Report, both of which demonstrate that
none of the major oil companies are aligned with the Paris Agreement targets.
The report is published as several major oil companies are set to
hold their AGMs, including Shell (Tuesday 19 May), BP and ExxonMobil (Wednesday
27 May) and Total (Friday 29 May). It shows that Shell and BP intend to
increase oil and gas production by 38% and 20% respectively between 2018 and
2030, when global carbon emissions must fall
by 55% by 2030 in order to limit the global average temperature rise to
1.5°C, according to the 2019 UN Emissions Gap report.
The report highlights that Shell and BP plan to spend huge sums on
exploration and extraction of new reserves between now and 2030 ($149 billion
and $71 billion respectively), when scientists are warning that the majority of
known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground.
The report also draws attention to the fact that BP and Shell,
which spend most among the major oil companies on lobbying against climate
action, belong to trade associations such as the American Petroleum Institute
that have successfully lobbied for weaker environmental regulation during the
Covid-19 crisis. The report strengthens the calls for bailouts to support
workers, but not oil and gas corporations.
Several UK Churches have already completed the process of
divestment from fossil fuels, including Quakers in Britain, the Church of
Ireland and the United Reformed Church. In others, such as the Church of
Scotland, the Church in Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church, Church bodies
have made divestment recommendations, which should be acted on as a matter of
urgency. Two Catholic dioceses in England and Wales have so far divested from
fossil fuels, and the report calls on the remaining dioceses to join them – and
150 other Catholic institutions around the world – in making divestment
commitments.
The 2017 Methodist Conference called for the Central Finance Board
of the Methodist Church to divest from oil and gas companies whose business
investment plans were not aligned with the Paris Agreement target of a global
temperature rise well below 2°C by 2020. In light of the research outlined, the
report calls on the Methodist Church to divest from all fossil fuel companies
now.
The Church of England General Synod in July 2018 voted to begin
divestment in 2020 from oil and gas companies that are ‘not taking seriously
their responsibilities’ in the transition to a low-carbon economy, and complete
divestment from those not on track to align with the Paris Agreement by 2023.
The report argues that none of the major oil companies are taking their
responsibilities seriously, and the divestment process must begin now.
James Buchanan, Operation Noah’s Bright Now Campaign Manager, said: ‘All
major oil companies continue to spend huge sums on the exploration and
extraction of new fossil fuel reserves, as well as lobbying against climate
action. The evidence is overwhelming that none of these companies are ‘Paris
compliant’. We strongly encourage Churches to demonstrate moral leadership at
this key moment in history by divesting from fossil fuels and investing in the
clean technologies of the future.’
Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, said: ‘The current health crisis has highlighted as never before the need for coherent international action in the face of global threat. Can we learn the lesson and apply it to the global threat of climate change? To do so means taking practical and effective steps to reduce our lethal dependence on fossil fuels, and this report challenges the Churches to take these steps as a matter of urgency.’
Ends
Contact James
Buchanan: james.buchanan@operationnoah.org or 07801 570 653
Notes for editors:
1. Operation Noah is a Christian
charity working with the Church to inspire action on climate change. It works
with all Christian denominations. http://operationnoah.org/
2. The report can be downloaded at: https://brightnow.org.uk/resource/church-investments-in-oil-paris-compliant-or-paris-defiant/.
3. The Methodist Conference in
June 2017 called for the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church to
divest from oil and gas companies whose business investment plans were not
aligned with the Paris Agreement target of a global temperature rise well below
2°C by 2020. https://brightnow.org.uk/news/methodist-church-takes-step-closer-divestment/
4. The Church of England General
Synod in July 2018 voted to begin divestment in 2020 from oil and gas companies
that are ‘not taking seriously their responsibilities’ in the transition to a
low-carbon economy, and to complete divestment from those not on track to align
with the Paris Agreement by 2023. https://brightnow.org.uk/news/church-of-england-votes-for-fossil-fuel-divestment/
5. The American Petroleum
Institute has lobbied for weaker environmental regulation during the Covid-19
crisis. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/17/polluter-bailouts-and-lobbying-during-covid-19-pandemic
6. Several European countries have
recently spoken of the ‘duty’ of governments to build climate-resilient
economies post Covid-19 https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/28/un-chief-dont-use-taxpayer-money-to-save-polluting-industries
