It’s Past Time for United Methodists to Divest from Fossil Fuels
Jesus said: “If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.” Mark 6:11
It’s past time for the United Methodist Church to shake the dust off our feet and divest from fossil fuels, the primary driver of climate change. Fossil Free UMC is focused on converting fossil fuel investments at all levels of the church to investments in goods and services that support a just transition to a clean energy future. The first step is to pass the General Conference resolution to add “fossil fuels” to our list of ethical investment screens in paragraph 717 of the Book of Discipline.
Engagement vs. Divestment
The United Methodist Church was the first denomination to pass a resolution at the 1980 General Conference calling for a transition away from fossil fuels toward conservation and renewable energy. Yet our denomination continues to invest in fossil fuels, including our United Methodist board of pensions, Wespath.
Wespath prefers corporate engagement and opposes divesting from fossil fuels. They have been engaging with fossil fuel corporations for two decades, trying to convince them to make minor and gradual changes to help prevent the worst of climate change. But it doesn’t work. We’ve given it our best shot. I’ve been there.
About five years ago I was part of a United Women in Faith meeting at Chevron corporate headquarters in San Ramon. About twenty of us sat around a big table with Chevron executives. But these global corporations are not moving away from fossil fuels. They are doubling down on their primary products: coal, oil, and gas. In fact, Chevron recently boasted that 2023 was their best year ever for selling fossil fuels.
Reasons to Divest
There are many Reasons to Divest from Fossil Fuels (moral, spiritual, practical, and even financial). Go to fossilfreeumc.net to find out more.
One moral reason is John Wesley’s instruction to “first do no harm.” Fossil fuels are the primary driver of climate change, which causes immeasurable harm to creation, including our human family (especially children), and will continue to wreak havoc into the future. People most impacted live in poor countries or communities, often black and brown people, who suffer first and worst from both fossil fuel pollution and climate change. The global divestment movement puts this moral argument in secular terms: “It’s wrong to profit from wrecking the planet.”
But there are also financial reasons to divest. Let’s look at it from a selfish point of view. I’m a pensioner. I’d like a stable pension. I’d also like a stable climate. But fossil fuels aren’t a great investment. In the past ten years, fossil fuels have performed worse than the overall stock market.
These companies will become a riskier investment as climate change progresses. The value of fossil fuel companies is based on their reserves. These stocks will lose value because of lawsuits related to climate-related damage, increasing climate regulations, and reduction of demand for fossil fuels due to the transition to renewables. All of these things mean that fossil fuel stocks will lose value and many reserves will become stranded assets. In fact, all those reserves can’t be burned or our planet will become uninhabitable.
Let’s Shake the Coal Dust off our Feet
This petition could pass. A similar petition was defeated at the 2016 General Conference by 2/3 vote. But climate change has gotten much worse since then and more people are concerned. And many of the disaffiliating churches opposed strong climate action.
Over 1600 institutions have now divested, institutions responsible for over $40 trillion dollars in assets, and 35 percent of those institutions are church and other faith communities. Last year the Methodist Church of Britain divested, and so did the Church of England, and so many others.
It’s ironic that we were the first denomination to call for a transition away from fossil fuels, but will we be the last to divest. Will the first be last? I pray to God not.
Let’s shake the coal dust off our feet, wipe the crude oil and liquified natural gas off our feet, and to move in solidarity with others toward climate justice and a justly sourced clean energy future.
Sharon Delgado is a retired UM Elder, Chair of the Cal-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force, member of the Coordinating Committee of the UM Creation Justice Movement, and Convener of Fossil Free UMC. She is author of The Cross in the Midst of Creation, Love in a Time of Climate Change, and Shaking the Gates of Hell. She blogs at sharondelgado.org.
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