Talk:Fossil fuel divestment

Criticism of method?

There is no mentions of the downsides of this method such as 1) non-benovelent investors replacing those that disinvest, or 2) the possibility that disinvesting might result in less profits for shareholders. 21:46, 27 April 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jsekamane (talk • contribs) Potential source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/17/why-fossil-fuel-divestment-is-a-misguided-tactic 13:52, 28 April 2015 (UTC)

I agree. Some criticism is necessary. For instance economist Ottmar Edenhofer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research views the divestment movement as largely symbolic – share prices may drop a little but otherwise its business-as-usual. These were his comments at a private presentation and are not able to be referenced. But there must be some citable criticisms out there. RobbieIanMorrison (talk) 13:42, 27 June 2016 (UTC)

This report  from the right-wing Canadian thinktank Frontier Centre for Public Policy offers a trenchant criticism of the divestment movement in higher education. While I do not agree with its assessment (it suggests the climate problem is not urgent), it is still a considered and well researched article and deserves to be covered here. (The report also has a good history of the movement.) Here is the earlier URL  properly referenced. Best wishes. RobbieIanMorrison (talk) 21:10, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

References

Questionable sources

This is a good article topic with lots of available RSs. However, I have questions about some of the ones used. For one thing, I don't think "Divestment Commitments" is RS. It's more in the nature of a social media / political lobbying tool. Better would be an unquestionable RS that is writing about the movement, perhaps using Divestment Commitments" as their own source. See WP:Original research and WP:SECONDARY. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 07:45, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

FYI, I've inquired at the RS noticeboard about GoFossilFree.Org's two refs. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 13:48, 30 March 2015 (UTC)

I agree with this. The list groups together a lot of different actions, ranging from total divestment to nonbinding resolution to simply a mayor calling for divestment. While advocacy groups can be valuable sources on some occasions, the GoFossilFree website does not seem very useful here. So I agree that we should not rely on their list, but on news sources, press releases from institutions themselves, etc. I've eliminated the cites to GoFossilFree... Neutrality^talk 05:24, 15 May 2015 (UTC)

Compare to other campaigns

I just deleted a section on this topic, which is an interesting topic, but the section had an extensive quote smacking of POV taken from an op ed, and no other RSs. Just wanted to compliment the article creator for thinking of this perspective, but note we need due weight given to RSs in order to include such. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 08:49, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

350.org

I just deleted the following

===350.org=== {{Main|350.org}} 350.org is an international [[environmental organization]] encouraging citizens to action with the belief that publicizing the increasing levels of carbon dioxide will pressure world leaders to address climate change and to reduce levels from more than 385 parts per million to 350 parts per million. [[350.org]] launched their Go Fossil Free: Divest from Fossil Fuels! campaign in 2012 with Bill McKibben's "Do The Math" speaking tour around the country. The campaign calls for colleges and universities, as well as cities, religious institutions, and pension funds to withdraw their investments from fossil fuel companies.<ref name="About Fossil Free">{{cite web|title=About Fossil Free|url=http://gofossilfree.org/uk/about-fossil-free/|website=fossilfree.org|accessdate=29 March 2015}}</ref>

on grounds that it is entirely sourced to a non-RS advocacy page. With the huge role McKibben and 350.org are playing in the divestment campaign, surely there are NPOV RS based ways to talk about what they are up to? NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 08:53, 29 March 2015 (UTC)

350.org now not mentioned

I have no objection to the comment above, but it seems odd that the page now doesn't mention 350.org at all, given how large a role the group has played in this movement. Ilnyckyj (talk) 22:46, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

This Creative Commons-licensed book (which I helped put together) makes a detailed case for divestment at the University of Toronto:

Toronto350.org, "The Fossil Fuel Industry and the Case for Divestment: Update", http://www.uoftfacultydivest.com/files/fossil-fuel-divest-new.pdf

An earlier version of the document was successfully adapted by the campaign at the University of Glasgow, which then committed to divest: http://peopleandplanet.org/dl/fossil-free/glasgow-divestment-brief.pdf

Ilnyckyj (talk) 22:45, 13 April 2015 (UTC)

I too would like to see 350's efforts in the article, but it has to be supported with a rootin' tootin' WP:Reliable source and that doesn't qualify.... it's a selfpublished advocacy thingie. Don't you have some media coverage? That would be a good WP:SECONDARY source, which is the sort of thing needed here. NewsAndEventsGuy (talk) 00:19, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

It is currently mentioned, see Fossil fuel divestment#350.org. RobbieIanMorrison (talk) 21:14, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Chloe Maxmin is also not mentioned

She is surely worth a Wikipedia article herself, but failure to mention her here as a founder of Divest Harvard seems like an oversight. Ilnyckyj (talk) 04:00, 29 March 2016 (UTC)

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Which companies invest in fossil fuels?

I did not notice much about that e.g. Blackrock Maybe there should be a section? Chidgk1 (talk) 05:32, 27 May 2019 (UTC)

I think that campaigns directed at large banks (eg Chase), insurance companies, and institutional investors like Black Rock are increasingly important. Might be worth a new page distinct from divestment. Let’s look into it Newcurtains (talk) 22:15, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Noticed this 2020 statement on the BlackRock Wikipedia page: “in January 2020 BlackRock announced that it would begin divestment from thermal coal and take other measures to make its assets more sustainable“ Newcurtains (talk) 22:23, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

A section on people and organisations calling for divestment

I keep seeing influential people and organisations calling for divestment, what would be a good name for a section on this? E.g

• https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/17/rowan-williams-urges-uk-universities-to-divest-from-fossil-fuels

John Cummings (talk) 10:20, 17 October 2020 (UTC)

Thanks John - would you like to add Rowan Williams to the list under “Support for the divestment movement by politicians and individuals”? Newcurtains (talk) 22:19, 27 November 2020 (UTC)

Citation to File:Divestment growth en.svg

As of 2021, 1,300 institutions possessing 14.6 trillion dollars have divested from the fossil fuel industry.

. Caption says "as of 2021", but access date-date is "11 April 2020", can anybody help explain if there's some mistake of time sequence? Thanks. ThomasYehYeh (talk) 23:21, 15 November 2023 (UTC)

References