Divestment. Everyone’s talking about it. From President Obama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu to the International Energy Agency and Professor Lord Stern. The global climate is changing and it threatens the health of people world-wide. Whilst our new government is planning to reverse any small progress Australia has made on climate change mitigation, we have the opportunity to take matters into our own hands into safeguarding a better future for everyone.
When discussing action on climate change, the effects it will have on people are often forgotten, perhaps because health impacts are numerous and complex. The most obvious health impacts of climate change are the direct consequences of extreme weather events such as trauma and heat stroke. In 2011, 332 natural disasters occurred in 101 countries, affecting over 244 million people and causing more than 30,770 deaths.
However, the greatest health impacts created by a changing climate are less obvious. Climate change can lead to malnutrition as a result of changes in food yields and access to fresh water as well as increases in infectious diseases, such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera.It will also cause more diffuse consequences to society, such as mental health problems, displacement and conflict over access to limited resources.
People living in low-income countries in Africa are likely to feel health consequences of climate change 500 times more than those in the affluent Western world. The World Health Organization estimates that climate change is already causing 150,000 excess deaths annually.
To avoid the worst consequences of climate change, and the health crises that are likely to ensue,we must act swiftly to reduce our carbon emissions to stay within a ‘safe’ two degrees of warming.
Climate science predicts that to have an 80% chance of staying below 2 degrees of global warming, fossil fuel companies must keep 4/5 of fossil fuel reserves in the ground. A tough sell to an industry making money from extracting and burning these fuels.
But all is not lost. We, as individuals, can influence our energy future in a number of ways. We can remove our own personal money from investments in fossil fuels (through banks and super funds) and help to influence institutions that we are part of (such as universities, religious institutions, councils and state governments).
Of course one can argue that such individual actions will hardly financially cripple the fossil fuel industry, but divestment is not primarily an economic strategy. Divestment is about making a statement about the future of fossil fuels. As Bill McKibben said, “If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it is wrong to profit from that wreckage”. Many companies and institutions around the world have already committed to divest from fossil fuels, such as Dutch bank, Rabobank and Norwegian pension fund, Storebrand. Religious institutions, including the Uniting Church of ACT and NSW and United States synod of the United Church of Christ have already committed to divesting from fossil fuel companies too.
As more and more institutions make these commitments, others will follow, sowing uncertainty about the viability of the fossil fuel industry’s business model. Finance experts are already starting to address these concerns. A recent report by the investment company, Impax Asset Management, found that portfolios containing renewable energy and energy efficiency stocks would generate better returns than those with fossil fuel stocks.
Divestment is a powerful strategy and has worked in the past. During the Apartheid in South Africa, a wave of divestment campaigns spread across the United States and by the late-1980s, 155 university campuses, 26 state governments, 22 counties and 90 cities had divested from companies doing business in South Africa, which raised awareness of the problem and arguably contributed to the end of the Apartheid in 1994.
Divestment from the fossil fuel industry offers individuals an opportunity to make a powerful impact in heading towards a fossil fuel free future. With action on climate change by the new Abbott government looking non-existent, it is time we took matters into our own hands.
To find out more about Fossil Fuel Divestment, come along to the Divestment Forum at 6pm on Wednesday 18th of September at the Medical Sciences Precinct (corner of Liverpool and Campbell streets). • Public forum Wed, 6pm, Sept 18: What can fossil fuel divestment do for our climate, communities and economy?
*Alice McGushin is a medical student at the University of Tasmania, taking a year off the normal five year degree to undertake Honours in Medical Research. She grew up in Queenstown, on the West Coast of Tasmania. Throughout her medical degree, she has been involved with rural, global and environmental health issues, including fundraising for and coordinating public health projects in Uganda, organising students studying degrees in health to talk to rural Tasmanian high schools and participating in the Vibe Alive Indigenous Health Festival in Bendigo. She is currently the National Student Representative for Doctors for the Environment Australia and the Hobart 350 Campaigns Coordinator.
