The Fund’s Divestment Efforts One Year Later
One year after announcing the Rockefeller Brothers Fund’s plan to divest from fossil fuels, President Stephen Heintz said its portfolio’s exposure to oil, coal, and tar sands has been reduced from about seven percent at the beginning of 2014 to just over four percent. Heintz told CNN Money that the decision to divest was primarily a moral: one: “It became increasingly uncomfortable to be fighting global warming on the one hand and then investing in businesses that cause global warming,” he said. Heintz was also interviewed by Al Jazeera for its Earthrise program, about 350.org and its efforts to build an international divestment campaign.
Other organizations are pledging to divest, including one of the world’s largest financial asset managers, Germany’s Allianz, which announced it would shift investments in coal to renewable wind resources instead. Chair, Valerie Rockefeller, commented about the RBF’s divestment efforts during Germany’s ZDF frontal21’s exclusive story on Allianz.
More information about aligning the institution’s investments with its mission was detailed by Geraldine Watson, vice president for finance and operations, in an article for The Magazine of the Green Economy.
Media Coverage
Le Devoir (Quebec): Le coup d’éclat d’une famille célèbre (November 28, 2015)
Deutsche Welle: “Rockefeller Fund: The oil age is coming to an end” (November 17, 2015)
Al Jazeera English’s Earthrise: “Take the Power Back” (November 22, 2015)
CNN Money: “Dumping fossil fuels was great move for Rockefeller Brothers Fund” (October 26, 2015)
TheGreenEconomy.us: Bellwether for Change: Investors Divest (October 14, 2015)
Related Links
350.org Announces $3.4 Trillion in Divestment Pledges at COP21 (December 2, 2015)
Stephen Heintz Discusses Divestment Progress at European Green Party Conference (September 14, 2015)
Why the Fund Decided to Divest from Fossil Fuels (April 1, 2015)
Fund Announces Plans to Divest from Fossil Fuels (September 22, 2014)