Antonia Juhasz

Photo: Uprising with Sonali

The World Council of Churches, a fellowship which represents an estimated 590 million people in over 300 churches, just announced their support of fossil fuel divestment. The global movement to divest from oil and gas companies in order to weaken them is an increasingly popular tool in the fight against climate change.

To that end, international organizations such as the WCC are beginning to declare their support of the campaign, inspiring others to join in. Serene Jones, President of The Union Theological Seminary in the United States, recently pledged to divest over $100 million of her organization’s investments, from fossil fuels, stating “Scripture tells us that all of the world is God’s precious creation, and our place within it is to care for and respect the health of the whole.”

In addition to these religious organizations, whole countries such as Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom, have also started divesting from fossil fuels. Just last Thursday the group Fossil Free NYS gathered 12,000 signatures in a petition to push New York State’s pension plan, which is valued at $160 billion, to divest. The growth of the movement is steadily increasing, and has the potential to change the way we approach the fight for climate justice.