The Church of England, one of the world’s wealthiest religious institutions, has decided to blacklist coal and tar sands investments, in a striking victory for campaigners seeking to make fossil fuels as unpopular as tobacco.
The Church announced on Thursday that it would sell £12m of its holdings in thermal coal and tar sands companies, two of the most polluting fossil fuels. “Climate change is the most pressing moral issue in our world,” said the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nick Holtam, lead bishop on the environment.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects world coal demand to reach 6,350 mtoe in 2040, but it expects the growth rate to drop to 0.5 percent annually, principally because of weaker demand in countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Washington, D.C.—Global coal consumption rose 3 percent from 2012 to 2013, reaching over 3,800 million tons of oil equivalent (mtoe) in 2013. While the pace of growth is down from 7.1 percent in 2010, the continued increase in coal consumption and related carbon emissions is a cause for substantial concern among climate scientists.
It's been a big year in the campaign to prevent the expansion of US thermal coal exports from BC. We wanted to offer a quick review of recent events and a brief preview of the year to come:
The governing Liberals in BC and Conservatives in Canada insist that jobs, public revenues and economic growth all depend on expanding fossil fuel exports. Christie Clark’s Liberals won the 2013 BC election promising a future of jobs and rising public revenues based on the export of liquified natural gas. Now two years later faced with widespread protests and declining oil and gas prices, no LNG project has proceeded.
The 350 Pacific Climate Warriors paddled out into the Port of Newcastle, followed by hundreds of Australians and came head to head with gigantic coal ships. It truly was David versus Goliath. Words alone are not enough to describe the courage of the Pacific Warriors as they came face to face with the fossil fuel industry. Watch and share the video of this powerful and inspiring action.
In response to the announcement of the approval of permits for the shipment of US thermal coal through Greater Vancouver, the Fraser River, and up the Salish Sea to Texada Island, residents in the region protested by occupying the Sabine Channel on Saturday, October 4.
New Westminster – The City of New Westminster will be submitting an application for Intervener Status with respect to the Federal Court challenge commenced by Ecojustice Canada (formerly known as Sierra Legal Defence Fund) against the proposed Fraser Surrey Docks Coal Transfer Facility.
A local district attorney in Massachusetts surprised parties on all sides on Monday after he sided with two climate justice activists who employed a "necessity defense" to justify their use of a small lobster boat to block the path of an enormous coal freighter trying to dock at the Brayton Point Power Station in the town of Somerset last year.
“I do believe they’re right, that we’re at a crisis point with climate change.” —Bristol County DA Sam Sutter
In the transition towards a post-carbon future, infrastructure built today for fossil fuels could easily become stranded assets which burden investors and taxpayers with sunk costs. The proposal to build coal shipment facilities at Fraser Surrey Docks and Texada Island for U.S.-mined thermal coal is at risk of becoming B.C.’s version of Mirabel Airport in Quebec underused infrastructure built for a future which never arrived.
