Ireland withdraws public money from fossil fuel investments

by Charlie Taylor January 4, 2019 read full article here

Ireland Strategic Investment Fund divests from 38 companies, raising €68m

The Department of Finance confirmed on Friday that the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), a State body controlled and managed by the National Treasury Management Agency, has divested from 38 fossil fuel companies.

The divestment, which was worth a combined €68 million, saw the fund selling off its shares in companies involved in oil, gas and other fossil fuels.

ISIF, which published a list of 148 fossil fuel companies in which it said it will not invest, is expected to continue to divest in such companies while also increasing investment in clean energy projects. Its portfolio already includes a range of wind farms, solar power and other renewable energy projects.

The €7.9 billion fund, which was designed to support economic activity and employment in Ireland, replaced the National Pensions Reserve Fund in 2010.

“The passing of this legislation marks Ireland out as one of the first countries in the world to withdraw public money from investment in fossil fuels,” said the Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe. “It positions the ISIF as one of a handful of sovereign wealth funds globally to implement a fossil fuel divestment strategy’.

A Valedictory Visit With Ellie Cohen as the CEO Leaves Point – from Bay Nature

By David Loeb for Bay Nature

Read the full Bay Nature article here

By the time I got out of my car at the Petaluma headquarters of Point Blue Conservation Science on the morning of November 8, the sky had already turned a sickly yellowish tan. On the drive up from Berkeley, I had started noticing what first appeared to be yellow fog to the northeast, while the sky remained clear and blue to the west. Strange, I thought; fog usually comes in from the west. By the time I reached Petaluma, the whole sky was blanketed by the sickly yellow haze; the acrid smell when I got out of the car told me immediately this was not fog. Inside the office, Ellie Cohen, CEO of Point Blue, was already communicating with Point Blue field staff about the fast-moving wildfire that had ignited just a few hours earlier near the town of Paradise in Butte County. “Get inside and be safe,” she pleaded. What we couldn’t have known at that point was that this was the start of the deadliest wildfire in California history, leaving 86 people dead and thousands displaced.

This was an all-too-appropriate segue to my interview with Ellie Cohen, on the occasion of her impending departure from Point Blue Conservation Science (founded in 1965 as Point Reyes Bird Observatory/PRBO). Because if the world at large had been heeding Ellie for the past 12 years, we might already be on track to make the choices and changes necessary to avoid this apocalyptic, smoke-filled vision of the future of California … and the planet….

The Real-Life Effects of Trump’s Environmental Rollbacks: 5 Takeaways From Our Investigation (NY Times)

By Eric Lipton, Steve Eder and John Branch Read full NYTimes article here

For nearly two years, President Trump has pursued an aggressive, far-reaching effort, lobbied for and cheered on by industry, to free American business from what he and many of his supporters view as excessive environmental regulation.

The consequences are starting to play out in noticeable ways in communities across the United States.

An investigation by The New York Times showed how Mr. Trump’s deregulatory policies are starting to have substantial impact on those who experience them close up — and often are economically dependent on the industries the president is trying to help.

Here are 5 key takeaways….