January 26, 2017

Irish Parliament supports historic fossil fuel divestment bill

A majority vote was passed in the Irish Parliament on first-of-its-kind fossil fuel divestment legislation. Ireland now has the historic opportunity to become the first country in the world to fully divest its sovereign wealth fund from coal, oil and gas.

Today marks an important moment in the history of the divestment movement: A majority vote was passed in the Irish Parliament on first-of-its-kind fossil fuel divestment legislation.

Ireland now has the historic opportunity to become the first country in the world to fully divest its sovereign wealth fund, worth over €8 billion, from coal, oil and gas.

Last Thursday in the Dáil, all political parties, with the exception of Fine Gael, indicated their strong support for the Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill – a piece of legislation getting Ireland’s Strategic Investment Fund to divest from fossil fuels. Today, this bill has passed. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill will now go to Committee stage in the Irish Parliament. 

This success is the result of fantastic campaigning by our friends at Trócaire, key members of parliament, and many people across Ireland taking action on fossil fuel divestment.

“With a climate-sceptic recently inaugurated into the White House, this move by elected representatives in Ireland will send out a powerful message. The Irish political system is now finally acknowledging what the overwhelming majority of people already know: That to have a fighting chance to combat catastrophic climate change we must phase out fossil fuels and stop the growth of the industry that is driving this crisis,” said Éamonn Meehan of Trócaire.

Yet another reason to never doubt, even in trying times such as these, that we are winning together.

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