In brief: Global divestment day

Earlier this month a consortium of health organisations published ‘Unhealthy Investments’ which articulates the strong case for UK health sector (and one could argue all businesses engaged in improving health) in divesting in fossil fuels.

In a type of ‘valentine to the planet’, February 13-14 marked global divestment day, celebrating the success of the movement encouraging divestment from fossil fuels and encouraging others to follow suit. The gofossilfree web site showcases a number of the reported 450 events that where held around the world and claims that an amazing US$50,000,000,000 has been divested to date.

Matthew Rimmer published this interesting piece, ‘Doctors for Divestment‘, covering the movement around the world and noting that in Australia Doctors for the Environment have mounted a local divestment campaign.

The Guardian provided an interesting interactive showcasing the breadth of people and organisations calling for divestment in fossil fuels.

Perhaps the report that will get the most attention however was an article in Business Spectator which showed that FTSE has developed several fossil fuel free indices which they have been tracking. Over the past five years the FTSE North American ex fossil fuels index outperformed the benchmark. Indicating that divestment is not only good for the planet, it makes financial sense.