Here’s a plan for green King Charles: sell the family silver and use the cash to save the planet | John Vidal | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/oct/06/king-charles-green-environmental-reforms-monarchy

he receives a quarter of the profits made by the crown estate, the monarch’s property corporation which owns nearly 8,000 sq km of farmland and is valued by Forbes at more than $17bn (£16.3bn). It is no wonder that Charles backs renewable energy. Aside from vast acres of wild lands suitable for onshore wind, the estate owns most of the British foreshore to a distance of 12 miles – perfect for selling leases for offshore wind, tidal and wave power.

It might not go down well to do a Patagonia and try to give it all away to fight climate breakdown. But he could start his green reforms of the monarchy by publicly divesting the institution of all fossil fuel interests. Again, we do not know what these investments amount to, but it is likely to be in the many hundreds of millions of pounds. Far from diminishing his wealth, the Treasury might even see divestment as a shrewd move if Britain is to reach net zero emissions.

#good #divesting

major climate news: today New York City is announcing its public pensions are fully divesting out of the fossil fuel industry and into renewables & climate - a massive shift of about $50 billion

#science

While the report includes some positive trends — like record increases in the use of solar and wind energy, and institutions divesting money from the fossil fuel industry — it paints a generally bleak picture of the future, accentuated by ongoing surges in climate-related disasters like floods, hurricanes, wildfires and heat waves, the authors wrote. The planet may also be about to pass (or has already passed) critical natural tipping points — such as the Amazon rainforest becoming a carbon source rather than a carbon sink — from which it will be hard to recover, the team added.

...

To accomplish this task, the team suggests a three-pronged near-term policy approach: 1) Implement a "significant" global carbon price to reduce emissions; 2) phase out and eventually ban fossil fuels; and 3) restore and protect key carbon-rich ecosystems, like forests and wetlands, to preserve the planet's largest carbon sinks and protect biodiversity.

Ignoring climate change will yield 'untold suffering,' panel of 14,000 scientists warns | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/earth-vital-signs-climate-change-suffering.html

The UK’s biggest pension fund, the government-backed National Employment Savings Trust (Nest) scheme with nine million members, is to begin divesting from fossil fuels in what climate campaigners have hailed as a landmark move for the industry.
The fund will ban investments in any companies involved in coal mining, oil from tar sands and arctic drilling. But the move puts Nest – a public corporation of the Department for Work and Pensions – potentially at odds with the current pensions minister, Guy Opperman, who earlier this month condemned divestment as “counter productive”.

UK's biggest pension fund begins fossil fuels divestment | Fossil fuel divestment | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/...ment-savings-trust-uks-biggest-pension-fund-divests-from-fossil-fuels

As well as divesting its endowment from fossil fuel companies, the University has also asked its endowment office, Oxford University Endowment Management (OUem) to engage with fund managers to request evidence of net zero carbon business plans across their portfolios. There will also be a new member of the Investment Committee, with experience of both endowment management, but with an additional focus on climate-conscious investment.

Oxford announces historic commitment to fossil fuel divestment | University of Oxford
http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-04-27-oxford-announces-historic-commitment-fossil-fuel-divestment