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Ireland Becomes World's First Country To Divest From Fossil Fuels (theguardian.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the ahead-of-the-curve dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: The Republic of Ireland will become the world's first country to sell off its investments in fossil fuel companies, after a bill was passed with all-party support in the lower house of parliament. The state's 8 billion euro national investment fund will be required to sell all investments in coal, oil, gas and peat "as soon as is practicable", which is expected to mean within five years. The Irish fossil fuel divestment bill was passed in the lower house of parliament on Thursday and it is expected to pass rapidly through the upper house, meaning it could become law before the end of the year. The Irish state investment fund holds more than 300 million euro in fossil fuel investments in 150 companies. The bill defines a fossil fuel company as a company that derives 20% or more of its revenue from exploration, extraction or refinement of fossil fuels. The bill also allows investment in Irish fossil fuel companies if this funds their move away from fossil fuels. "The [divestment] movement is highlighting the need to stop investing in the expansion of a global industry which must be brought into managed decline if catastrophic climate change is to be averted," said Thomas Pringle, the independent member of parliament who introduced the bill. "Ireland by divesting is sending a clear message that the Irish public and the international community are ready to think and act beyond narrow short term vested interests."

5 of 194 comments (clear)

  1. Seems meaningless or foolish by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This seems rather meaningless as Ireland divesting does nothing to the companies if someone else is willing to buy Ireland's holdings. It's worse if this means that Ireland will see a lower return as a result.

    If governments want to be serious, they should remove subsidies for fossil fuels. In many countries there would be a much quicker move to alternative sources of energy if the government weren't giving fossil fuel companies special tax breaks or other forms of government largesse. But if, even after doing all of that, the best return on investment is still in those fossil fuel companies, it's idiotic to ignore the opportunity.

    Also, I suspect that a good many of the large energy companies that are currently heavily involved in extracting fossil fuels will still be big energy companies after the world moves passed fossil fuels. I'm not sure that the arbitrary line in the sand that Ireland has drawn is particularly useful.

    1. Re:Seems meaningless or foolish by Arzaboa · · Score: 4, Interesting

      On the other hand, if this keeps happening, someone will eventually end up being the one holding all of the oil cards. Being the only one holding all the cards when the market collapses isn't the best financial position to be in.

      Your point about the energy companies finding other ways to profit off of energy once oil isn't a thing is valid. Maybe you'd suggest Ireland use their money and power to sway the board's? What is your suggestion? What if their share doesn't change opinion, should they divest then until the companies turn around or split their holdings?

      --
      "Hi, my name is Teddy Ruxpin" -- T. Ruxpin

    2. Re:Seems meaningless or foolish by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 3, Interesting

      are by FAR the largest investors in renewables. They've literally done more than anyone else building renewable infrastructure.

      The biggest investor in renewables is the government of China.

  2. Comparatively... by cirby · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's about 41 minutes' worth of US government spending.

  3. This is a big deal for one special reason: Peat. by RyanFenton · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Peat is big, big business in Ireland. Government pushing out of that is a pretty big deal.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    It's a huge shift for Ireland, and more than just a token effort potentially. That's pretty cool in my books.

    Ryan Fenton