Divestment by any other name would smell as sweet

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Two years ago, I joined the first divestment march in Dublin calling for the Irish government to remove fossil fuel assets from our Strategic Investment Fund. It was a bitter cold Valentine’s day, and I felt guilty dragging my 4-year-old out on a march. With less than 50 people in attendance, Ireland’s likelihood of “breaking up with fossil fuels” as a result of our efforts seemed improbable.  ​

While I agreed completely with the premise of divestment, the word and concept failed to capture the public’s imagination so I questioned the value of campaigning on the issue. We were struggling as it was to get people to take any action on climate despite its effects becoming more urgent and obvious by the minute. How could we expect people to act on a poorly understood concept involving money most people would never see? 

I was reassured when I met Bill McKibben a few months later. At a conference hosted by Trocaire and University of Maynooth, he told the audience divestment was already a major national movement in the USA. By 2016, more than $3.5 trillion worth of fossil fuel investments had been withdrawn due to U.S. divestment campaigning, making fossil fuel divestment the fastest divestment movement in history.

L to R: Trocaire's Lorna Gold, 350.org's Bill McKibben, Green Party's Eamon Ryan & Cara Augustenborg at Trocaire's 2016 conference on Climate Justice

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This divestment movement was born on U.S. college campuses. The “youth” of today continually impress me – They have led the charge against toxic free trade deals like TTIP and CETA and now they lead on divestment, neither of which are topics for the faint of heart. 

Following Trocaire’s conference, Ireland’s university divestment campaigns blossomed, with students at Maynooth University, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Galway, and our neighbors at Queens University Belfast all leading the charge. Trocaire deserves tremendous credit for fostering an Irish divestment movement, particularly as an organisation whose mandate focuses primarily on global and national poverty rather than environment. 

Just less than two years after my daughter and I joined the Valentine’s day march to encourage Ireland to break up with fossil fuels, something super sweet just happened. Ireland actually did it!

This week, the Dail voted 90 to 53 to move forward with legislation to divest the Irish Strategic Investment Fund from all fossil fuels. If passed into law soon, this legislation would make Ireland the first country in the world to divest state assets fully from fossil fuels. While financially this effort is relatively small, it sends a strong message to the rest of the world that Ireland is preparing to transition to a low carbon economy where fossil fuels will become stranded assets for those who hold them. 

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In addition to the hard work of campaigning organisations like Trocaire, other Stop Climate Chaos members and tireless university students, Ireland’s divestment success is also due to the unique political situation we find ourselves in today. The divestment legislation passed in spite of our dominant political party’s opposition because all other parties and independents supported it. Our electorate’s disruption of the traditionally bipartisan power base in Ireland’s last election has led to more progress on climate action today than ever before. The election of several small parties and independents has created the perfect storm to finally get stuff done, not just divestment but also a national fracking ban scheduled to become law in October and hopefully more climate action to come.

Yesterday, I heard news commentators complaining that the lack of a majority Irish government was preventing big policy reform to address our healthcare, housing and education crises. However as long as I’ve lived here (14 years), I’ve never seen any significant reform of those problems even when there was a majority government. Instead, today I see voting small works. In spite of being sandwiched between two countries whose political systems are leading to extremism, Ireland is in the midst of a great political experiment in compromise. When it comes to climate action, this experiment seems to be working. 

This week’s divestment success is not only a victory for climate action, but also one for democracy. No matter how elusive the term may seem, “divestment” by any other name would smell as sweet! 

Keep fighting the good fight!
​-Cara