Essen needs to divest from fossil fuels
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The document discusses the need for Essen, which hosts RWE, Europe's largest CO2 producer, to divest from fossil fuel investments due to their role in climate destruction. It highlights the ongoing protests and public demand for a coal exit, as well as financial losses endured by RWE, and outlines the campaign for ethical investment guidelines in local municipalities. The document emphasizes that failing to address these issues equates to profiting from climate degradation, with calls for a clear divestment plan from fossil fuels.
Essen needs to divest from fossil fuels
- 1. ESSEN NEEDS TO DIVEST or how the European Green Capital 2017 is profitting from climate destruction (experience your green wonder / Essen’s green capital motto)
- 2. Hi! My name is Andreas. @andreasbrinck
- 3. Input On the work of the Fossil Free activist group Essen as part of a global civil society movement: - About Fossil Free & the Essen campaign - Relevance: Global climate impacts and the call for climate justice - The climate movement & the new reality - “What do we want?” - So why do cities invest in fossil fuels like RWE? - Successes & our demands
- 4. If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong for our institutions to profit from that wreckage. Essen is the headquarters of RWE, Europe's largest CO2 producer Our Bürgerbrief (citizens’ letter) to the mayor and the city council: https://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/burgerbrief
- 5. The Essen campaign: the Bürgerbrief
- 6. RAUS AUS RWE campaign
- 7. Breaking News - Destruction of the climate has real consequences Catastrophic storms around the world, on an unprecedented scale as a result of CO2-induced climate change. Africa Asia Americas
- 8. Climate change tipping points are not just symbolic “The tipping points we should also be paying attention to are the mass extinctions, global warming, melting ice and complete habitat changes we are currently seeing worldwide. Soon we will recognise these not as symbolic thresholds but more as points of no return.” Caroline Hernandez Chevy Chase, Maryland, USA https://www.theguardian.com/environment/201 6/oct/24/new-era-of-climate-change-reality-as-e missions-hit-symbolic-threshold https://www.instagram.com/currentsofclimate/
- 9. Just in: a promise by chancellor Merkel “We will find ways to meet our 40 percent target by 2020.” -Angela Merkel, “leader of the free world” https://twitter.com/ZDFheute/status/908406413034008576
- 10. People demand coal exit ● 87 percent of the Germans for an end of coal until 2030 ● Over 3000 people mark a virtual border at #seidieroteLine rally ● About 3,000 people spend a weekend of civil disobedience at #endegelaende Further actions are planned as part of COP23 in November. 1 http://www.klimaretter.info/protest/nachricht/16531-mehrheit-fuer-baldigen-kohleausstieg
- 11. So what’s the (financial) gain in holding a share in RWE? ● RWE is an energy bad bank ● 5,7 billions in losses in 2016 ● paid no dividends 2016 http://www.dw.com/en/opinion-rwe-is-an-en ergy-bad-bank/a-37676387 RWE = 57,7% coal power 0,5 % renewables
- 12. European Green Capital is profiting from Mountaintop Removal ● RWE is financially invested in mountain top removal mining since 2012 ● Deutsche Bank is the lender for the controversial company "Blackhawk Mining" (urgewald, 2016) https://urgewald.org/sites/default/files/typ_download/rwe_deut sche_bank_mtr_-_pm_urgewald_-_17.3.16.pdf (experience your green wonder)
- 13. RWE & the municipalities https://youtu.be/PaGs-dgkVIk? t=5m00s http://www.rwe.com/web/cms/ de/8488/rwe/ueber-rwe/profil/g eschichte/1921-1930/ More than 100 municipalities hold RWE shares. Together they hold about one-fifth of the shares, 23 of them even hold more than one million shares. They play with the public money, and keep the shares in spite of the RWE’s ongoing crisis and despite the necessary decarbonisation of the economy. They speculate on the fact that the prices are still rising, that the dirty business with brown coal is still profitable and hope they can profit from the heating up of climate change. More and more of them begin to think about divestment. http://www.greenpeace-koeln.de/kommunen-und-rwe-ein-unuebersichtliches-schmutziges-netzwerk/
- 14. The role of innogy ● being green-washed by EGC ○ highly visible main sponsor of the EGC ○ CDU party leader Uhlenbruch calls innogy in the city council "innovative enterprise" ● innogy serves RWE to raise money (2.6 billion) ● home-made competitor for the RWE business model
- 15. Successes: Münster, Berlin, Bochum next! DIVESTED!DIVESTED! Münster Berlin
- 16. Bochum made a plan - Selling shares in 3 steps - 1st part Oct 4 - model minimizes risk https://www.waz.de/staedte/bochum/stadt-bochum-verkauft-ihre-rwe-aktien-id12198273.html
- 17. Essen: Status quo - the pact still holds ● Like many municipalities, Essen is still invested in RWE and other fossil fuel businesses (e.g. STEAG) ● Political standstill, as issue of climate change are treated rather symbolically ○ e.g. EGC Essen Fossil Free Essen demands: - Commitment to ethical investment guidelines - 5-year plan to divest from fossil fuels - engage for responsible business ethics within the city’s reach
- 18. Back-up
- 19. “Es ist schon viel passiert…” (Angela Merkel)