"Fossil Fuel Divestment Has Grown to $2.6 Trillion in Assets"

"The fossil fuel divestment movement skyrocketed in the past year as hundreds of institutions and thousands of individuals committed to selling their oil, natural gas and coal holdings, according to a new report.

So far, 436 institutions and 2,040 individuals representing $2.6 trillion in assets have agreed to sell their fossil fuel investments, according to a review by Arabella Advisors, a Washington, D.C.-based consultant that works with philanthropies. It represents a 50-fold increase from a year ago, when the divestment totals were 181 institutions and 656 individuals representing more than $50 billion in assets.

'This is just stunning and shows the real strength for this momentum for change,' Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, in a recorded video shown at a press conference Tuesday. Figueres said divestment is critical to keeping global warming below 2 degrees Celsius, forestalling the most catastrophic effects of climate change, while making the transition to clean energy sources."

Zahra Hirji reports for InsideClimate News September 23, 2015.