Reverend Sharon Delgado will offer a PowerPoint presentation on the growing movement within the United Methodist Church to screen out fossil fuel companies from United Methodist investment portfolios as a response to threats posed by climate change.
This presentation will present the rationale of divestment from fossil fuels, the urgency of the need to respond to climate change, the role of fossil fuel companies in lobbying and in funding climate change denial, the larger divestment movement, the path that activists in the United Methodist Church are taking, the institutional divestment process, and resources for institutional divestment.
The Fossil Free UMC network extends across the United Methodist denomination, with coordinated activity in sixteen annual conferences, including California-Nevada. It is part of a growing movement of faith communities, colleges, universities, cities, counties, foundations, and nonprofit organizations that are divesting from fossil fuels.
The Fossil Free UMC movement has experienced some recent successes. In January the United Methodist General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits (GBPHB), the largest denominational pension fund in the United States, announced that it would screen out thermal coal from its investments. In April, the General Board of Global Ministries, which works on the front lines in regions impacted by extreme weather events made worse by climate change, announced its support of FFUMC legislation that would exclude not just coal, but also oil and natural gas, from United Methodist investment portfolios.
For more information contact FFUMC@earth-justice.org.
This presentation is being sponsored by: Nevada City United Methodist Church and Society Committee, Nevada County Climate Change Coalition, and Earth Justice Ministries.