National Movement

Divest Oregon: Reinvest in a Fossil-Free Future

Is a part of :

The Climate Safe Pensions Network

brings together campaigns from many states to shift billions of hard-earned pension fund dollars from financing coal, oil and gas.
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The Stop the Money Pipeline coalition

is over 200 organizations strong, including many Divest Oregon coalition members. Together we are holding the financial backers of climate chaos accountable.
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Institutions are Divesting

The fossil fuel divestment movement has grown to encompass more than 1,500 institutions with $40 Trillion in assets in the last decade, according to the Global Fossil Fuel Commitments Database maintained by 350.org and Stand.earth. Ahem: yes – that’s $40 Trillion. And these numbers have already been exceeded. The market size of the Retirement and Pension Plans industry in the US, measured by revenue, was $688.2 Billion in 2021.

For the big picture, see Invest/Divest 2021

Many institutions have found that they can get a better investment return if fossil fuels are removed from their portfolio. One example: The University of California has a portfolio about the same size as Oregon and they divested a couple of years ago.

Opinion: UC investments are going fossil free. But not exactly for the reasons you may think (LA Times 9/17/19).
UC becomes nation’s largest university to divest fully from fossil fuels (LA Times 5/19/20): “As long-term investors, we believe the university and its stakeholders are much better served by investing in promising opportunities in the alternative energy field rather than gambling on oil and gas,” Richard Sherman, chair of the UC Board of Regents’ investments committee, said in a statement.

States are also Divesting

New York State has begun to divest its $247 billion pension fund. (PR Office of the NY State Comptroller 4/12/21) It is carrying out a plan to divest sector by sector over a 5 year period.

Maine has enacted legislation to divest from fossil fuels.

There is a roadmap for Oregon State – a detailed roadmap. New York City is successfully divesting and hired BlackRock and Meketa, two of the largest wealth asset managers in the world, to tell them how it is done. See the notes in this article for the detailed draft reports.