Divest Now, Pittsburgh

The Divest Pittsburgh campaign of the Thomas Merton Center is calling on the Mayor, City Council, and the Pension Board to divest city funds from fossil fuels. Strong moral and financial reasons support divesting from the 200 companies holding the largest amount of unburned carbon in their fossil fuel reserves.

The campaign sees divestment as part of transitioning to a healthy, clean energy future, and opposes the fossil fuel industry’s business plan that fuels dangerous climate change, toxic pollution at home, and political lobbying to dismantle protections for working people and public health.

Pittsburgh is home to multiple fossil fuel divestment campaigns focused on Pitt, Chatham, CMU, and the city government. Oakland’s Phipps Conservatory recently divested from fossil fuels, joining hundreds of other institutions worldwide.

The Divest Pittsburgh campaign agrees that protecting the retirement security of our city workers should be the top priority for the pension fund. We believe that fossil fuel divestment is good for the long term financial security of the pension because real action on climate change will require these companies to leave most of their fossil fuel reserves unburned and underground. If we’re going to have a future, our future’s not going to use fossil fuels!

Divest Pittsburgh proposes that the city immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels and, over the next five years, selling off all investments that include fossil fuels.

Divest Pittsburgh activists gathered more than 500 petition signatures, as well as letters of endorsement from the Allegheny Group of the Sierra Club, Clean Water Action, Fossil Free Pitt Coalition, GASP, and Pittsburgh 350. Throughout 2015, activists met with City leaders to make sure they had the information needed to make the right decision. The campaign also recently shared draft legislation with City Council and sent members of the pension board a white paper outlining the financial case for fossil fuel divestment.

What will the Mayor do? In December of 2015, Mayor Peduto issued a press release announcing his intention to “develop a fossil fuel divestment strategy for City of Pittsburgh funds”. It’s time for him to step up as a leader on climate action and support divestment more publicly. Supporters can call the Mayor’s office at 412.255.2626 and leave a message saying you support the City of Pittsburgh divesting from coal, fracked gas, and oil. City residents can add their name to the petition at divestpittsburgh.com.

Gabriel McMorland is a staff organizer at the Thomas Merton Center. His close relatives were directly affected by hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, as well as the recent UK floods. Get involved with Divest Pittsburgh by contacting him at gabriel@thomasmertoncenter.org

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