Governance by Spiritual mandates
The inspiration for the sustainability component of
Good governance comes from a variety of sources. It includes not only the
soft and hard law, but also the spiritual law. The clergy says that should
you believe in God; you should not believe in oil. World Council of Churches
(WCC), an organization of more than 500 million Christians, has joined a
global movement to boycott fossil investments.
It is against the word of God to invest
in shares in companies mining coal, gas and oil by religious institutions.
This is apparently supported by one of the fastest growing pastoral boycott
campaigns in history.
The popular South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu believes; "people of
conscience should break ties with the companies that finance climate change".
He further considers a boycott similar to the one that helped bring apartheid
to fall.
The global movement against fossil fuels noted its biggest victory since
the World Council of Churches (WCC), formally agreed to recommend to all
of its member organizations a total stop of investments in shares of companies
dealing with so-called black energy. WCC organizes 345 churches, especially
Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant, with over 500 million followers.
Fear of global warming
In recent months, a number of religious institutions and individuals worldwide
recommended a halt to investments in fossil fuels. This is due to the
fear of global warming. Several organizations, including the International
Energy Agency estimate that two-thirds of all known fossil fuel reserves
must be left in the ground if we are to meet the global climate goals.
The Nordic approach
Many large Scandinavian pension funds invest heavily in green energy,
such as wind farms. However, on the other hand, few have officially opted
out of coal or other fossil fuels.
The decision came at the Swedish request when the Vatican held a Catholic
sustainability summit where several participants spoke about the boycott.
The Swedish state church has already taken a decision to pull out of coal,
oil and gas.
Serious investment impact
The Swedish Lutheran Church has an investment capital of about $ 5 billion.
Therefore, the potential impact will be enormous when the Catholic Church
joins the choir.
Another example is the City of Copenhagen that is trying to become the
world's first CO2 neutral capital, but has no policy to stay out of fossil
investments. The city is thus unlike many large cities in the United States,
for example, San Francisco, who has decided to phase out fossil investments.
Among the arguments to avoid a boycott in particular is that if you sell
shares in listed companies, there will be others who buy them. That costs
taxpayers or pension customers money by not going after the companies
that make profits.
Therefore it is now apparently against the word of God to invest in shares
in companies mining coal, gas and oil if the global climate targets can
be achieved, much of the fossil reserves remain underground, and it will
affect the valuation and value creation for the oil and gas companies.
