Doctors call on health super funds to pull $1.7 billion out of coal and oil companies

Hundreds of Victorian doctors and medical staff are pressuring their super funds to quit investing in coal and oil for the sake of health, as they did with tobacco five years ago.

Hundreds of medical staff in Victoria are pressuring
their super funds to divest from corporations that
are based on fossil fuels.

The group, which includes some of Australia's leading health experts, says there is overwhelming evidence that climate change is already making people sick and causing thousands of deaths.

They want the two largest health super funds, HESTA and First State, to divest from fossil fuel-based companies, arguing the nest eggs of the medical profession should not be built on industries that make people sick.

Combined, the two default health super funds have about $1.72 billion invested in these heavily fossil fuel-based companies, according to Market Forces, an environmental investment advisory group.

Read Adam Carey’s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “Doctors call on health super funds to pull $1.7 billion out of coal and oil companies.”

Cut fossil fuel use ‘dramatically’ to meet climate goals, says Shell-backed report

The use of fossil fuel, particularly coal and oil, must decline “sharply” if the world is to meet the goals of the Paris accord, according to a new report backed by energy giants Shell and BHP Billiton.

Global coal use must be cut by 70% within 25 years, oil use must fall 30% and gas can increase by only 2% out to 2040. The growing global population will instead get its energy from a huge expansion of renewables, combined with more efficient energy use and other low-carbon technologies.

Those are the conclusions of the Energy Transitions Commission, a group set up in 2013 by a cross-section of major firms, NGOs and academics. Its conclusions broadly align with other pathways for 2C and below, but the commission’s membership adds an interesting twist to the findings.

Read the Carbon Brief story by Simon Evans - “Cut fossil fuel use ‘dramatically’ to meet climate goals, says Shell-backed report.”