Just a few short weeks after 1000 people hit the streets of Oslo demanding divestment from fossil fuels on Global Divestment Day, we’re hearing reports that the City of Oslo has responded by divesting from coal.
Oslo is divesting US$7 million from its pension fund investments in coal. This places Oslo as the first capital city in the world to make a divestment commitment and we should congratulate them for doing so.
Our partners in the divestment campaign over in Norway, Framtiden i våre hender met the news with the following response:
“The year of 2015 is important, both because this is the year when we need to come together globally and secure a path towards a carbon free society, but in Norway we’re also having local elections, and if there’s any time for local leaders to show what future they want – this is the time.
The fact that Oslo is now divesting from coal is a victory for our hard work, and sends a strong signal to the government that is currently reviewing the investments of the national oil fund. We will regard it as poor leadership if the government choose to take a less powerful stand than Oslo when deciding their own strategy for a sustainable future.”
Framtiden had sent a letter to the mayor of Oslo along with other Norwegian municipalities in January, asking them to take climate leadership and become fossil free.
Let this be a signal for other cities to follow suit. It should also be inspiration to the Fossil Free network that organising for divestment is a solid strategy, and to keep on pushing the communities in which we live to make the right, moral and financial choice by divesting from oil, coal and gas.