Fossil Fuel Divestment, Climate Change & General Assembly

Webinar Presenters: Rob Fohr (MRTI Staff), Kerri Allen (MRTI Chair), Katie Carter (MRTI staff), abby mohaupt (Fossil Free PCUSA and GreenFaith), and Moderator Bruce Gillette (Presbyterians for Earth Care).

Since 2013, Presbyterians around the country have been working to have the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s Foundation and Board of Pensions divest their multi-billion-dollar investments from the fossil fuel industries as a way to counter the growing climate change crisis. Others have opposed these efforts, so divestments have not happened.  For the first time, the PCUSA’s Mission Through Responsible Investment (MRTI) and  Presbyterian Mission Agency Board are recommending to the 2022 General Assembly to divest from five major oil companies (overture available HERE).  MRTI had recommended divestment from three companies in 2020 (but no action was taken).  The Hudson River Overture On Fossil Fuel Divestment can be found HERE.

“The Time is Now to Cherish Creation, Cut Carbon, and Speak Up,” Presbyterians for Earth Care’s overture, supported by ten Presbyteries and a Synod (PC-Biz), urges more action, more quickly, by directing that “all PCUSA-controlled financial investments be withdrawn from industries that contribute to the production of the two major greenhouse gasses, CO2 and methane.”