Great news from Providence, RI. We’ll have more on the announcement later, but for now, a huge congratulations to our friends at Fossil Free RI, divestment activists at RISD and Brown, and partners at the Sierra Club (Abel, your rock) and many others. Here’s an article from ecoRI on the news:
Providence Approves Divestment From Fossil Fuels
By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
PROVIDENCE — Building on the local climate change divestment movement, the City Council voted 11-1 June 20 to pull its investments from fossil fuels.
After Brown University and Rhode Island School of Design students attracted national attention with recent campaigns to divest from coal companies, Councilman Seth Yurdin introduced a resolution to have the city withdraw from its fossil-fuel investments. Seven council members quickly signed the resolution.
“A major contributor to (climate change) is fossil fuels, the number one source of greenhouse gases,” Yurdin said at the recent City Council meeting.
The council last agreed in 2006 to divest from companies doing business in Darfur, Yurdin said. “This is a statement that has a successful record of bringing about social change,” he said.
A dozen activists from the Fossil Free RI campaign, including four Brown and RISD students, applauded after the resolution passed.
“Rhode Island is at the forefront of the divestment movement across the country,” said Nick Katkevich, an organizer for Fossil Free RI. Providence is the first capital city and the largest on the East Coast to pass a fossil-fuel divestment resolution, he said.
The group, which has drawn inspiration from the national 350.org project, plans to work next on divestment campaigns at Rhode Island College, the University of Rhode Island and the Community College of Rhode Island.