Rockefeller Fond Says Goodbye to Fossil Fuel Investment

The heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune have decided to sell their investments in the coal industry and Canada’s oil sands, and review their remaining fossil fuel holdings for possible sale in one or two years.

Stephen Heintz, president of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, suggested that John D. Rockefeller, the oilman who established the family’s fortune, would approve of the decision and would be “leading the charge” into renewable energy if he were alive today.

However, Christophe de Margerie, chief executive of Total, one of the world’s largest oil companies, criticised the move, saying he had told the fund that “without energy, the Rockefeller Centre wouldn’t exist”.

The Rockefeller fund is one of hundreds of foundations, colleges and charities that have divested fossil fuel holdings over the past year in response to a grass-roots campaign modelled on the anti-apartheid campaigns that targeted investments in South Africa.
Campaigners say 800 funds responsible for $50 bn of investment have pledged to sell some or all of their holdings in fossil fuels.

The effort to make oil, gas and coal investments as unpopular as tobacco has been a prominent theme in advance of today’s New York climate summit organised by UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.

“Stay away from this fossil fuel-based investment. Do much more on renewable energy,” he told a meeting of business and government leaders yesterday.

Mr Heintz acknowledged that the Rockefeller Fund’s holdings were not very large but said that selling them would send a “signal” about its views on the future of energy.
“The science is crystal clear” on climate change, he said. “We’ve just got to leave the bulk of the remaining fossil fuels in the ground.”

Several large energy companies have sent representatives to the New York summit, according to the UN, including China’s Sinopec, France’s Total, Norway’s Statoil and Royal Dutch Shell.

Meanwhile, the World Bank announced more than 1,000 companies and investors had expressed support for putting a price on the carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels that drive climate change. They include Shell, which has had an internal carbon price for some years, as well as Nokia, LG Electronics and Lego. (www.chinainout.com)
(