杏吧原创

ON 12 JULY, Ireland鈥檚 parliament voted for a bill that requires the country鈥檚 鈧�8 billion investment fund to sell off all coal, oil and gas investments over the next five years. The bill has to be reviewed by a financial committee, but is likely to become law soon.

Norway announced in 2015 that its massive fund, then worth around $900 billion, would divest billions from coal. Ireland is set to become the first country to divest from all fossil fuels. The news has been greeted with joy by climate change campaigners.

鈥淚reland鈥檚 decision to divest from fossil fuels staggers me. It鈥檚 one of the landmark moments in what has become the largest campaign of its kind in history. Such thanks to all who fought,鈥� tweeted Bill McKibben of 350.org, one of the first organisations to campaign for divestment.

Will it make a difference in the battle to limit global warming? Naysayers argue that if universities, pension funds and countries sell off their fossil-fuel investments, these stocks will just be snapped up cheaply by other investors with no effect on the companies concerned. Divestment just makes less ethical investors richer, they claim.

But that isn鈥檛 what happened to those who have invested in coal in recent years. Instead, the world鈥檚 biggest private coal company, Peabody Energy Holdings, went bust in 2016 鈥� although it did emerge from bankruptcy the next year.

The sector would be in even worse shape were it not for US president Donald Trump鈥檚 efforts to prop up coal. Earlier this year, a study found that, in Canada at least, funds that divested have been more profitable.

What鈥檚 more, financial authorities say there is a serious risk of the value of oil and gas companies collapsing in the future, leading to a global financial crash. So it is prudent for everyone to ensure that their wealth does not rely heavily on fossil fuels.

鈥淚t is prudent for everyone to ensure that their wealth does not rely heavily on fossil fuels鈥�

While there is no evidence that the divestment campaign has directly affected fossil fuel companies, it might yet do so, say the firms themselves.

鈥淪ome groups are pressuring certain investors to divest their investments in fossil fuel companies,鈥� says energy firm Shell鈥檚 2017 annual report. 鈥淚f this were to continue, it could have a material adverse effect on the price of our securities and our ability to access equity capital markets.鈥�

Then there is the symbolic importance of divestment. It sends out the signal that business as usual is no longer acceptable in a warming world, it encourages investors to look at alternatives and it pushes governments to do that bit more to tackle climate change.

But perhaps the strongest argument for divestment is the simple ethical one. Climate change is already destroying the lives and livelihoods of people around the world. 鈥淧eople of conscience need to break their ties with corporations financing the injustice of climate change,鈥� wrote Archbishop Desmond Tutu in 2014.

That said, divestment is just one of a wide range of measures required if we are to have any hope of stopping global temperatures soaring by 3掳C or more above pre-industrial levels. Most urgently, just about everyone agrees that countries need to introduce an effective form of carbon pricing.

Unfortunately, Ireland is not doing all these other things too. In fact, its record on tackling climate change is abysmal 鈥� the worst in Europe. Like all countries, it needs to do far more.

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淲ill Ireland鈥檚 move to ditch fossil fuels help?鈥�