Financing a Green Climate Future

Photo: Joe Bruskie via CC by NC 2.0

View our Community Presentation and Conversation entitled “Building Momentum Toward a Green Future” by clicking here.

In it, we provide an overview of and discuss: 

1) The accomplishments of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement and its current status.

2) The exciting & accelerating movement across the country to set up public banks able to leverage public funds to take action on climate and other projects on behalf of the local and regional community.

3) Our needed transition to new economic models like the Circular Economy and Donut Economics that avoid the historic levels of economic inequality, the destabilizing boom and bust cycles and the wanton climate destruction fostered by our current economic systems.

4) Climate Initiatives from the hyper-local to the those with national scope.

Database of Institutions Divesting from Fossil Fuels

View a comprehensive database of fossil fuel divestment commitments made by institutions worldwide!

https://divestmentdatabase.org/

Actions You Can Take Now

1. MOVE YOUR MONEY

If you’re concerned about the climate, it’s time to pull your money out of corporate banks that are financing fossil fuels.  Instead, bank with local credit unions or regional community banks!  You can Stop the Money Pipeline.

Get more help moving your accounts here at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau info page on doing that.

2. ADJUST YOUR INVESTMENTS TO SUPPORT CLIMATE ACTION!

3. Make some noise

And last, but far from least, see below how dangerously hypocritical JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has been to mouth Chase support for Paris climate goals, then become the global leader in destructive fossil fuel financing.

Call, email, or write Dimon at the contact info shown and give him a piece of your mind!

350Marin Divestment~Investment Support

The Divest/Invest committee of local group 350Marin is serving as the information clearinghouse and consultant on Fossil Fuel Divestment and Re-Investment in Clean Energy for 350 Bay Area and its 350 local groups.  Use the form at the bottom of the page to contact the 350Marin Divest~Invest team if we might be able to help:

  • Establish a Divestment Campaign team within a 350 local group.
  • Publicize a Divestment~Investment Event

350 Bay Area Divestment~Investment Campaign

Divestment is the opposite of investment–it simply means getting rid of stocks, bonds or investment funds that are unethical or morally objectionable, particularly fossil fuel investments which are a risk for investors and for the planet.   We are calling on institutions to divest from the 200 publicly-traded companies that hold the vast majority of listed coal, oil and gas reserves.  We also support a socially just transition to a future that invests in jobs and infrastructure to build an economy based on renewable clean energy.

Here’s a great video explaining the campaign in more detail:

Bay Area Divestment News and Events

Last summer, 350Marin rallied our members to support the successful passage of California’s historic Public Banking Bill, AB 897.  Fiercely opposed by Wall St. banks, adoption of public banks by California, the state with the largest economy, permits the public to manage and leverage their own public funds like private banks, but genuinely in the public interest rather than driven by private, often counter-productive agendas of greed-focused corporate banks.  It’s a way we all can lower fees, and use funds strategically to provide new opportunities for underserved communities, avoid fossil fuel and other destructive investments, and to finance needed public projects at a lower cost.  The bill also becomes a model for using billions in publicly managed investment across the US and around the world.

350Marin, in concert with Niklas Ugalde, a student at College of Marin (COM) in our intern program, also succeeded in getting a commitment from COM President David Coons to completely divest the college’s millions in endowment funds from fossil fuel investments.   In late 2019 and currently, our divestment committee has focused on organizing a series of protests throughout Marin with the local Sunrise Movement group and other local allies to get Marinites to individually move their money out of fossil fuel investments and away from the big fossil fuel financing banks like Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

If you aren’t already getting our newsletter, sign up, and we’ll keep you informed about everything we’re doing, and let you know how you can participate!

National and International Divestment News

Bank Divestment

Financing a Green Climate Future

To find out whether banks you use have been supporting the fossil fuel industry and financing pipeline infrastructure projects, and how to transfer your accounts away from them, check out our flyer HERE.

Divestment~Investment Resources

Find out more about California’s divestment campaign focused on the two state pension plans, CalPERS and CalSTRS at FossilFreeCA.org.

Stay up to date with the international divestment campaign at 350.org.

Contact the 350Marin Divestment Team

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