"The age of ‘burn what you like, when you like’ cannot continue...”
The Guardian reported today that the UN framework convention on climate change has decided to back divestment, "the fast-growing campaign persuading investors to sell off their fossil fuel assets."
We support divestment as it sends a signal to companies, especially coal companies, that the age of 'burn what you like, when you like' cannot continue- said Nick Nuttall, the spokesman for the UNFCCC
This move is likely to be controversial as the economies of many nations at the negotiating table heavily rely on coal, oil and gas, the Guardian added.
Apparently, the World Coal Association has criticised the UNFCCC's decision to back divestment, saying it threatened investment in cleaner coal technologies.
However, 1 Million Women shares the view of many, that there is no such thing as clean coal, and we support the UN lending its "moral authority" to the divestment campaign, as this will help build ambition to get a strong deal to tackle climate change at the upcoming UN summit in Paris in December. The most important UN climate summit planned to date.
Everything we do is based on science and the science is pretty clear that we need a world with a lot less fossil fuels.- said Nuttall.
This decision comes a few weeks after Global Divestment Day, a global event organised by 350.org that happened back in February, and was about banding together in global force to urge people, industries and governments to divest from fossil fuels.
Last November, the UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, also encouraged investors to reduce their investments in the coal and fossil-fuel based economy, and rather into renewable energy.
A recent tweet from the UNFCCC said: "Divestment worked to free [South Africa] of apartheid. Now it can help free us of fossil fuels." The tweet carried a powerful quote and image of the archbishop Desmond Tutu.
