FossilFreeUMC

The following talking points, developed by Fossil Free UMC, focus on issues that specifically impact Central Conferences related to the General Conference petition to add fossil fuels to United Methodist ethical investment screens. They are intended to facilitate inclusive discussion, discernment, and decision making.

1. Divesting from fossil fuels is an act climate justice.
2. Climate change impacts are disproportionate. Nations that contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions are most impacted by climate change.
3. Fossil fuel pollution impacts are disproportionate. In the quest for fossil fuel profits, poorer countries and communities become sacrifice zones.
4. Climate projections demand strong climate action, including divestment.
5. Divestment from fossil fuels would not limit sovereignty. The case for informed financial investment.
6. Central Conference pastors deserve a stable pension and stable climate.
7. Divestment challenges today’s dominant development model, which is based on colonialism.
8. Fossil fuel divestment is one strategy of the climate justice movement.
9. Divesting from fossil fuels and investing in a just, clean energy future aligns our financial stewardship with our ministries and missions.
10. Aligning United Methodist pension investments with sustainability goals requires divestment from fossil fuels.

Read about each of these points, below. Learn more In Pictures from Rev. Paul Jeffrey.

1. Divesting from Fossil Fuels is an Act of Climate Justice.

We live in an unjust world, with a vast and growing gap between rich and poor. Isaiah 58 links acts of justice with light, healing, God’s tangible presence and guidance, and repair and restoration that extends to future generations, proclaiming:

“Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; 
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; 
you shall be called the repairer of the breach, 
the restorer of streets to live in." (Isaiah 58:12)

John Wesley spoke of social holiness as integral to the gospel of Christ:

“The gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; 
no holiness but social holiness.”

Of all the grave injustices of our day, one of the greatest is climate change. Significant climate action will be necessary to rebuild and repair this unjust global system, and to “raise up the foundations of many generations.” One such action would be the passage of the General Conference petition to add “fossil fuels” to the list of United Methodist ethical investment screens. (See petition here).

In seeking justice, it matters who is at the table. Regions most vulnerable to the deadly impacts of climate change and regions with huge energy deficits must have significant input into the UMC’s overall approach to this issue. People from nations that have industrialized through fossil fuels, including the United States, have no right to advise people from poorer nations to either utilize or forego the energy benefits of fossil fuels. While regionalization will allow each region to make their own decisions about many aspects of ministry, climate change is a global issue and involves the whole church. 

Working toward a just transition to a clean energy future will require prioritizing the participation of Central Conferences in decisions about fossil fuels and climate change, including whether to divest or continue investing in fossil fuels as a denomination.

2. Climate change impacts are disproportionate.

Nations that contribute least to greenhouse gas emissions are most impacted by climate change.

As global temperatures rise, every place on earth will be affected, but many of the poorest regions will suffer the most severe effects. Most accumulated greenhouse gas emissions have come from industrialized nations, especially the United States, while poor nations with minimal historic emissions lack the resources to respond to disasters caused by rising temperatures, rising seas, and extreme weather. 

The average person in Africa consumes the same amount of energy in one year as the average person in the US does in four days.

Such disproportionate impacts upon countries least responsible provide a key rationale for calls for climate justice. Africans represent nearly 20 percent of the world’s population, yet overall emissions from the continent are less than 4 percent of the global total. According to the World Bank, seventy-four of the world’s poorest nations are responsible for less than one tenth of global greenhouse gas emissions but are also hardest hit by the impacts of climate change.

By screening out fossil fuels from United Methodist investments, we align ourselves with those who recognize the economic, social, and political injustice of climate change and who call for strong action for climate justice. (See: When poverty meets climate change: A critical challenge that demands cross-cutting solutions, Akishiko Nishio, Nov. 5, 2021, World Bank Blogs.)

3. Fossil fuel pollution impacts are disproportionate.

In the quest for fossil fuel profits, poorer countries and communities become sacrifice zones.

Poor countries and communities, often communities of color, bear the brunt of the pollution of land, air, and water caused by the extraction and processing of fossil fuels.

Screening out fossil fuels from United Methodist investment portfolios is an act of solidarity with those who suffer most from the impacts of fossil fuel pollution and climate change.

Fossil fuels release greenhouse gases that cause atmospheric warming, but they also produce serious health and environmental impacts as they are extracted, transported, and processed. Mountaintop removal coal mining, hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil or natural gas, offshore oil drilling, and the destruction of forests to create vast tar sands mines pollute the land, air, and water and harm the people who live nearby.

Some of the most ardent climate justice advocates live in or near areas that are being exploited by fossil fuel companies in their search for profits. Awareness is growing that fossil fuels are damaging, especially for marginalized communities, during the process of extraction, transport, processing, burning, and at every stage in between. (See: Extremely polluted ‘sacrifice zones’ across Earth affecting millions of marginalized people, UN expert warns, Vishwam Sankaran, Mar. 22, 2022, The Independent.)

4. Climate projections demand strong climate action, including divestment.

Climate projections make clear that investments in fossil fuels are unsustainable, both ecologically and economically. Decisions we make today about fossil fuels will have dramatic implications and may determine whether humanity will collapse or thrive.

Critical 1.5C threshold breached over 12-month period for first time;
Data revealing hottest January ever is ‘stark warning’ of urgency of tackling climate change

Financial Times, February 2024

The earth just breached the Paris Agreement goals for a full 12 months, with 1.52°C warming over the last 12 months. The World Bank’s report, “Turn Down the Heat,” warns that without significant cuts in fossil fuel emissions, average global temperatures could rise by 4°C (7.2° Fahrenheit) in this century, driving the earth´s ecosystems into a state unknown in human history. Impacts could be catastrophic, as regional and global disruptions grow, combine, and interact.

Existing social, economic, or political institutions “could become less effective or even collapse.” The World Bank report emphasizes the risks:

“[T]here is also no certainty that adaptation to a 4°C world is possible. A 4°C world is likely to be one in which communities, cities and countries would experience severe disruptions, damage, and dislocation, with many of these risks spread unequally. It is likely that the poor will suffer most and the global community could become more fractured and unequal than today. The projected 4°C warming simply must not be allowed to occur—the heat must be turned down. Only early, cooperative, international actions can make that happen.”

If we continue to invest in fossil fuels, we contribute to a future of ecological, social, and political turmoil. Divesting from fossil fuels and investing in justly sourced renewable energies is an act of embodied hope that a just and clean energy future is possible.  For more, see:” Turn Down the Heat: Why a 4°C Warmer World Must be Avoided,” The World Bank

5. Divestment from fossil fuels would not limit Sovereignty.

The case for informed financial investment.

Divestment from fossil fuels does not limit churches, communities, or countries from making morally complex decisions about development. It will not limit the provision of much-needed electricity to regions that currently experience an energy deficit, or to any region. The petition to add fossil fuels to ethical investment screens simply calls for the UMC to stop investing in fossil fuels and to instead invest in products and services that will contribute to a just transition to a clean energy future.

Energy-rich developing nations, however, should recognize the risks of depending solely upon fossil fuel extraction for development. According to the International Monetary Fund, Unburnable Wealth of Nations, developing nations rich in fossil fuels are in an “almost no-win situation”:

“If there is no progress in combating climate change, poor countries are likely to be disproportionately harmed by the floods, droughts, and other weather-related problems spawned by a warming planet. But if there are successful global actions to address climate change, poorer countries that are rich in fossil fuels will likely face a precipitous fall in the value of their coal, gas, and oil deposits.” IMF Source.

Robbing Peter to pay Paul is not a climate solution.

Without urgent emissions reductions, there is ‘no certainty that adaptation is possible.‘ Continued investment in fossil fuels risks both portfolio and ecological systems collapse. This is the foreseeable problem of “stranded assets.”

Diverting United Methodist fossil fuel investments to investments in renewable energy in regions with the greatest energy needs would offer communities more access to just and sustainable alternatives rather than limiting their choice to polluting fossil fuels. (See African production of natural gas poses a vexing climate challenge, Rachel Chason, Jan. 31,2024, Washington Post.  

6. Central Conference pastors deserve a stable pension and stable climate.

Central Conference Pensions (CCP) is administered by Wespath and provides a steady source of retirement income for over 3,600 retirees and surviving spouses in Central Conferences. It is essential that Wespath continue to responsibly manage this fund and to provide stable returns on all its investments.

“Beginning in 2013, we see steady improvement year on year in the returns of the global renewable portfolio, with performance exceeding the global fossil fuel portfolio and MSCI ACWI from 2015 onwards.” IEA Report

Clean Energy Investing: Global Comparison of Investment Returns.

Responsible management does not require investing in polluting fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate change, which disproportionately impacts African nations, The Philippines, Island nations, and other developing nations. The pastors in these regions deserve a stable pension into the future as well as a stable climate, so that their pastors, church members, and communities do not have to contend with escalating climate-related disasters.

Instead of investing in fossil fuel infrastructure, which locks in fossil fuel projects for decades, United Methodists should be investing in green alternatives for a livable future for its pastors, churches, people, communities, and all creation. Furthermore, many studies show that fossil free funds perform as well as or better than funds invested in fossil fuels.

7. Divestment challenges today’s dominant development model, which is based in colonialism.

Today’s dominant development model, powered by fossil fuels, is based on colonization. Not only is colonization largely responsible for the ecological and climate catastrophe we find ourselves in today, but wealthy nations, along with corporations and investment partners, continue to extract fossil fuels and other natural resources seeking to generate maximum profits.

Oil companies are abusing the rights of Indigenous and rural people and forcing them off their land. Oil and gas exploration and exploitation are leading to political destabilisation and increased violence.

A New Era of Economic Colonization by Fossil Fuel Companies. By Canon Dr Rachel Mash with The Bishops of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa

For too many US Methodists, there is a belief that global colonialism is largely over. Yet the truth is that industrial extraction—siting mines, pipelines, and refineries to extract a profit, while dumping toxic, radioactive and other refuse in the atmosphere, soils, rivers and oceans—is very much still actively occurring. This is happening globally as well as within US borders.

Resistance to pipelines is a hue-and-cry the world over. In Uganda, for instance, resistance to the EACOP Pipeline is widespread, including from Climate Safe Pensions, European Parliament, the Catholic Church, and most importantly, the local people. Hundreds of organizations have challenged banks to stop funding these 19th century, ecocidal projects.

Through its investments in fossil fuels The United Methodist Church functions uncritically within this dominant system and benefits from this exploitation.

Adding fossil fuels to the United Methodist ethical investment screens challenges the dominant development model, which has been called CO2lonization, by removing the UMC’s implied ethical endorsement. It signals the United Methodist Church’s rejection of the dominant fossil-fuel-based model of development, which exemplifies the colonial legacies of dispossession and inequality that have divided the world between rich and poor. (See also: The Limitations of the Dominant Paradigm for Climate Rescue, Sharon Delgado, Dec. 19, 2023, Fossil Free UMC).

8. Fossil fuel divestment is one strategy of the climate justice movement.

The global movement for climate justice is primarily led by those who are most impacted by the changing climate and fossil fuel pollution:  people living in poor nations most vulnerable to climate change, people living in or near “sacrifice zones” (where polluting fossil fuels are extracted, transported, or processed), and young people globally are demanding a clean energy future.

This global climate justice movement is present at every climate conference and is calling for “system change not climate change,” payments for “loss and damage,” “debt cancellation for climate reparations,” a just transition to a clean energy future, and strong climate action to “keep it in the ground” (fossil fuels, that is).  

Solar is now growing much faster than any other energy technology in history. How fast? Fast enough to completely displace fossil fuels from the entire global economy before 2050.

Unstoppable Growth of Solar, The Conversation

Reinvestment in clean energy and sustainable systems continues to grow. Clean investment opportunities are everywhere. Newly published reporting lead to headlines that showcase the real investment, clean energy; Record clean-power growth in 2023 to spark ‘new era’ of fossil fuel decline, from Carbon Brief and Clean sources of generation are set to cover all of the world’s additional electricity demand over the next three years from IEA.

Divestment from fossil fuels is one strategy of this growing global movement. The need is obvious, and to date, more than 1,600 institutions holding more than $40.6 trillion, including universities, pension funds, churches, foundations, and other institutions, have divested from fossil fuels. (For more, see ‘Huge’: 1,600+ Institutions Holding $41 Trillion in Assets Have Now Divested From Fossil Fuels. Olivia Rosane, Dec. 15, 2023, Common Dreams.)

9. Divesting aligns our financial stewardship with our ministries and missions.

Divesting from fossil fuels and investing in a just, clean energy future aligns our financial stewardship with our ministries and missions.

United Methodist Global Ministries responds to disasters, assists in relief and recovery, addresses the needs and rights of migrants, and works to foster resiliency and improve livelihoods and food security worldwide. Its programs incorporate creation care and environmental sustainability into all aspects of its mission. It provides renewable energy in many settings. Yet accelerating climate change will impact our ministries and missions everywhere.

“The impacts of global climate change threaten all creation and will make it more difficult for people of faith to care for those in need. . . . Though many understand the devastating impacts that climate change will have on human communities around the world, few understand the impacts that climate change will have on core church ministries such as refugee resettlement, feeding the hungry, and disaster relief.”

National Council of Churches, USA

It makes no sense for The United Methodist Church to invest in fossil fuels that drive climate change on the one hand while responding to climate-fueled disasters and providing renewable energy on the other.

As United Methodists, we must align our financial stewardship with our ministries and missions by converting investments from fossil fuels to products and services that contribute to a just, clean energy future.  (See the NCC’s report: Church and Climate: How Global Climate Change will Impact Core Church Ministries.)

10. Aligning with sustainability goals requires divestment.

Aligning United Methodist pension investments with sustainability goals requires divestment from fossil fuels

Wespath’s Sustainable Economic Framework uses the following strategy: Invest—Engage—Avoid. Wespath’s goal of investing “in companies and strategies that demonstrate strong returns, preparedness for the future, and meaningful social and environmental impacts” is a strong foundation for a pension fund. Likewise, engagement with “companies, policymakers and asset managers by urging them to adopt sustainable practices and policies” is part of ethical investing.  

Is engagement working? Hundreds of faith organizations think ‘no.’ Including the Anglican Church and Methodist Church in England whose Central Finance Board stated that despite engagement, these companies were failing to take real steps toward meeting Paris Agreement goals.

“Today we announce our intention to disinvest from all remaining oil and gas holdings across our equity and debt portfolio, There is a significant misalignment between the long term interests of our pension fund and continued investment in companies seeking short term profit maximisation at the expense of the ambition needed to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

John Ball, Chief Executive Officer of the Church of England Pensions Board

The problem is that Wespath has been engaging with fossil fuel companies for years, and, despite the “greenwashing” rhetoric of those companies, there is no sign that they are transitioning away from fossil fuels. By continuing to engage with them, the UMC’s place at their table gives them the veneer of legitimacy.

It is time to walk away, to refuse to provide fossil fuel companies with moral cover.

Wespath asserts that it avoids investments based on “ethical exclusions” as well as ‘excessive financial risks related to sustainability.’ Fossil fuels fit both these exclusion categories. Fossil Fuels pose “excessive financial risks” due to their volatility and the danger of “stranded assets.” They also drive climate change, which causes great harm.

The solution is for General Conference to add “fossil fuels” to the list of ethical exclusions.  (Read more:  Why Working with Fossil Fuel Companies Will Not Work, Mark Davies, Nov. 4, 2023, Fossil Free UMC.)

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Developed by Fossil Free UMC in preparation for General Conference.  For more talking points see Ten Reasons Why The United Methodist Church Should Divest from Fossil Fuels, our talking points about climate change–Plain Talk: This is what’s at stake, and Wespath-related issues– Ten Reasons for Wespath to Support Fossil Fuel Divestment.

Thank you to Rev. Paul Jeffrey. Paul Jeffrey is a photo journalist who travels the world to share stories of people and community for organizations such as ACT Alliance, Church World Service, United Women in Faith, UM News Service and more.