Let's not profit from destroying the future - Haringey divest from fossil fuels

A petition has been launched calling on Haringey Council to divest from fossil fuels, following similar action by Edinburgh University, Oxford City Council and others.

The petition, which has been signed by both Haringey MPs, David Lammy and Catherine West, is backed by local Friends of the Earth, Transition Crouch End, Muswell Hill Sustainability group and Highgate Climate Action Network.

The petition is live at

www.minutes.haringey.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?ID=41&RPID=...   (or failing that go to 

www.haringey.gov.uk/council-and-democracy      then scroll down to  E-petitions.

It says

We the undersigned call on Haringey Council to divest its own financial holdings and those of its pension fund from any business which is involved in the exploration or production of coal and tar sands within two years; and immediately to freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies; because

1. Climate change is the gravest threat to our future and to the future of the natural world

2. We cannot burn more than a fifth of existing fossil fuel reserves and stay within safe limits, so these fuels are increasingly being seen as being unburnable (as recognised by Shell and the Governor of the Bank of England) and therefore investment in these fuels is becoming financially risky as well as morally indefensible

3. Coal and tar sands are the worst sources of carbon dioxide that causes climate change, and so the most risky financially

4. There is a growing movement to divest, particularly from coal and tar sands, supported by Ban Ki-Moon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim; and including the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund; the Church of England; Oxford City Council; and Oxford and Edinburgh Universities