THE ACT Greens General Meeting last night supported a motion calling on the ACT Government to responsibly divest from fossil fuels over the next three years, and to place an immediate freeze on any new investments in fossil fuel companies.
“The ACT is a progressive, future-thinking city,” said Convenor Sophie Trevitt.
“Last night the ACT Greens called on the ACT Government to show leadership and divest from fossil fuels, in line with our 40% climate change target for the Territory.
“If we believe in a pollution-free, clean and sustainable future for our city then it makes no sense to continue to hold investments in outdated and dangerous fossil fuel companies.
“The motion also calls on the ACT Government to make public the quantity of the ACT Government holdings in fossil fuel companies, as well as any assessment of the financial risk associated with these holdings.
“Global warming is one of the greatest issue we face at a global, national and local level. This was reflected by the ACT Greens members last night who unanimously supported the motion calling on the ACT Government to divest. Our MLA Shane Rattenbury has already raised this issue with the Chief Minister and Treasurer Andrew Barr.
“Divesting from fossil fuels isn’t only an integral part of taking strong action on global warming, it also makes sense for the ACT to ensure it doesn’t get caught with risky investments in fossil fuels that cannot be burned if the world is to meet its pollution reduction targets.
“We’ve seen the Bank of England express concern about significant risks of stranded assets in fossil fuel investments in March this year, and a similar warning came from HSBC, the multinational banking company, in April.
“In passing this motion last night, the ACT Greens are pleased to support the Global Divest-Invest campaign which involves over 650 individuals and 180 institutions to divest more than $56 billion over the next 5 years.
“If the ACT Government shows leadership and divests, we could become the first capital city in Australia to divest from fossil fuels.”
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