The inside story of how Presbyterians in Ireland Divested from Fossil Fuels


It's been a while since I've updated this blog, life has been busy. But I want to capture my feeling and thoughts from over the last few months with some back-dated posts. Here goes...

My goodness, they did it!  The Presbyterians followed the Church of Ireland's lead and also committed to full divestment from fossil fuels. This means they will move about £3m out of BP and Shell - wow!

A press release on the news was published on the Presbyterian Church website.  Here are some quotes from it.

'Climate change is not only an environmental issue. Climate change is a poverty issue. It’s a hunger issue. It’s an issue of inequality and injustice.’ - Prof Katharine Hayhoe
The church is adopting a 'divest and engage' strategy, which means dumping investments from companies that extract fossil fuels and engaging with large consumers of fossil fuels so that they set targets for Net-Zero emissions.

Some of the mainstream press also picked up the story, for example RTE News, said "It means the three largest Christian churches in Ireland are taking a similar approach to divestment in the industry." The Belfast Newsletter also covered the news.

This is a tremendous achievement by a small group of Presbyterians who have working in the background - with some gentle guidance from myself. Here is a little background on how it happened.

Over the last year or two, I've made connections with some Presbyterians on Twitter and got a feeling that some clergy were trying to move climate action forwards, but it was an uphill struggle. Then at an online Tearfund training course on Christianity and Climate Change with Prof Katharine Hayhoe I met the Rev Liz Hughes who is a senior minister in the Presbyterian Church. She is just wonderful. She really understood the problem of climate change and the ethical need to divest from fossil fuels.

Liz arranged for me to give a presentation to her colleagues, some of whom work in the Assembly Buildings - the headquarters of the church itself. I gave this presentation on divestment to them that highlighted the ethical and financial reasons for divestment, and the need to continue to strengthen engagement with major fossil fuel consumers and funders like banks and insurance companies.

This presentation gave them food for thought and they went off to draft a resolution up for the General Assembly.

Meanwhile, I gathered together a bunch of presbyterian students who were committed to climate action. I'd invited Olivia to share her passion at the presentation I'd given and she went down a storm. She was very articulate and passionate.  She made such an impression in fact that they invited her to interview the Moderator Rev Dr David Bruce on Climate Sunday.  You can watch that video below.

The very fact that students were gathering and started to campaign on social media, using #DivestPCI as a campaign slogan seemed to strike a chord. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland knew the winds had changed, it was time to act on divestment.

To act they did!  It was decisive and meaningful. Within a few months the PCI had sold their shares in BP and divested their directly held investments in fossil fuels.

This means that all four of the major churches in Ireland have taken major steps forward on climate action - moving millions of pounds out of fossil fuels and into clean investments.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Care for Creation - new growth in Ireland

Image
It is been quite a year for Care for Creation in Irish Churches, perhaps it could even be called a season of new growth. And it all came about because of two teenage girls speaking passionately. Tori and Isobella from Mullingar Parish in county Meath spoke for a few minutes at the Irish Churches Creation Care conference and captured the hearts of the audience and explained what creation care is all about.  You can see the moment below, Their project Lighten Our Darkness by Numbers is a youth-led response to climate change. They are educating church goers, engaging communities, building bridges to businesses, and enhancing biodiversity in church graveyards.   This short talk from the girls had a deep impact on the Archbishop of Armagh, and he spoke about it at his presidential address in General Synod.  Archbishop John McDowell said, We need to do what that group of young people from Westmeath are doing. That is, to work on ways of inspiring and equipping parishes t...
Read more

Speech to General Synod 2022

Image
Photo from Stephen Spillane The support from the RCB to parishes, dioceses and cathedrals during the Covid-19 emergency was most welcome. It helped us worship in difficult at times. May I suggest we use this model of support to respond to other emergencies too. The World Health Organisation said in October last year that, “the single biggest health threat facing humanity” is Climate change. We must take decisive action. I want to thank the RCB for leading the way by divesting and supporting the Creation Care Conference in April.  But it is also up to every diocese, every parish, and every one of us to take action. We need a grassroots movement to transform our churches and our lives for a sustainable future. And church leaders, you might need to sow some fresh seed to help the grass roots grow. I think the RCB can support this movement by responding to the Climate Emergency, just as it did with Covid. For example, How many of you clergy have lived in a cold and draf...
Read more

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland to vote on fossil fuel divestment

Image
  Photo by  Lukasz Szmigiel  on  Unsplash There have been a number of very positive statements from the PCI in the last few months on climate change, and today there is an opportunity for action to stop funding fossil fuels. The church's decision to support The Climate Sundays initiative is really positive. The moderator is encouraging congregations across Ireland to set aside one Sunday in October as `Climate Sunday' to focus on God's creation and humanity's responsibility to be good stewards of it. Rev Dr David Bruce also produced a Climate Conversation video to outline briefly some of the theological reasons why Christians should take climate change seriously and care for creation. This is all very welcome. Another key moment will be today, Tuesday 5th October, when the General Assembly will vote on a motion to divest from fossil fuels. It aims to fully divest from fossil fuel production companies that it holds - that's £5m in BP, Shell and Total - and to engag...
Read more