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Ireland Becomes World's First Country To Divest From Fossil Fuels (theguardian.com)
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."
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.
I can't speak for Ireland, but lots of countries have "sovereign wealth" funds. Opinion clearly differs on what is a "proper" function of government.
Wouldn't seem to me to be a proper function of government.
Cool story, bro? Why is the government of Ireland supposed to care what you think?
That approach hasn't worked in one single country in the world. Not one. It's been tried, but it failed.
The problem with leaving investing in the hands of the private sector is that the private sector would gladly throw a baby off a bridge for a dollar. That, and the fact that there are no such things as free markets. They do not exist in nature. They always fail.
You are welcome on my lawn.
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
No. Corporations are not people.
I didn't say corporations are people, you did. You said the private sector would toss a baby off a bridge for a dollar.
I said people act on the behalf of corporations. A corporation itself does nothing. What is a corporation? It's a legal construct. It's nothing but words on paper and an idea in people's heads. A corporation cannot act. The people in the corporation act. For a corporation to do some evil act, like toss a baby off a bridge, means someone acting on behalf of the corporation tossed that baby off the bridge.
Perhaps there might be a series of events, where no one person in the corporation tossed the baby off the bridge. Maybe it's a series of acts from multiple actors in the corporation that by themselves would be seemingly innocent but when combined result in the baby being tossed from the bridge. That does not make the corporation evil, just blind and mindless.
What you seem to fail to comprehend is that corporations are, in the end, groups of people acting in concert just like a government. What is the term we use to describe the creation of a government? Incorporation. What is the term we use to describe the creation of a corporation? That's right, incorporation. A government is a corporation, a legal construct that is just words on paper and ideas in people's heads. I'm just trying to understand how you believe that a government corporate investment is inherently any better or worse than a private corporate investment. It's still people acting on the behalf of a legal construct. The actions of both are determined by the people within them. Their actions may be virtuous because the people are virtuous, or because the blind and mindless machine just happened to do something virtuous by chance like a blind squirrel can find a nut.
Anyway, it's not about "angelic" or "demonic", although your desire to frame economies in biblical terms makes me wonder if you're some kind of crazy.
The terms are not "biblical", they are English. Using the term does not mean I'm religious. It does not prove whether I'm crazy or not either.
And there is not a single country that has succeeded by leaving their economy in the hands of the private sector. Ever. Not one. As in it has never happened in the history of the world.
Of course not, because a government that is completely separated from the economy is no government at all.
So seriously, until you have some proof that it works besides a dog-eared copy of Ayn Rand you've been carrying around since junior year of high school, kindly take your mythical free market and go fuck yourself.
Interesting. You want proof from me to defend my theory but provide no proof to defend your own. Go fuck yourself.
Absolutely not. The coal companies will get the same thing Trump has given everyone to whom he's made a promise: Jack and shit, and maybe not in that order. He only pays his bill when it's hush money to a porn star, and even then under protest.
Trump promised to move the Israel embassy to Jerusalem, he kept that. He promised to lower taxes, seems like he kept that promise. He promised to get out of the Iran nuclear deal, that happened. Trump didn't do these things on his own, of course. Maybe these things would have happened anyway because a government is big and in many ways blind and mindless. Maybe Trump is just a blind squirrel that happened to find a nut.
I am armed because I am free. I am free because I am armed.