Markets & Justice

Markets & Justice
Freely operating markets yield a just outcome?

White Australia Has A Black History

White Australia Has A Black History

Friday 29 May 2015

Tweeter of the Week - James O'Brien - History of Sugar Slavery in Queensland

Dear Advocates - Advocacy is starting a series to-day >>> Tweeter of the Week.
Each Friday, the Editor hopes to bring you someone 
who tweets consistently on topics of interest to Advocates.
It would be good if you could find time 
to appreciate the Tweeter of the Week
in the best possible way......
by following him, her, them or it!

To introduce all this, Advocacy presents 




Wednesday 27 May 2015

Friday 22 May 2015

A failure of international 'virtue' to act in the face of ethnic deprivation and potential genocide.

Picture from here
The Rohingya were dying at sea and boats pushed back to sea
as nations of the Indian Ocean refused help.
This is not a "stop the boats" issue.
This is a failure of  international 'virtue' to act in the face of 
ethnic deprivation, religious discrimination  and potential genocide.

From Sight
MYANMAR: HUMANITARIAN AND AID GROUPS 
PLEAD FOR UN SECRETARY-GENERAL 
TO NEGOTIATE ACCESS TO ROHINGYA CAMPS
21st May, 2015
Christian Solidarity Worldwide is among group of more than 25 international humanitarian aid and advocacy organisations who have written an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urging the international community to take steps to address the humanitarian crisis facing the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar.
The letter, which was published yesterday, urges Mr Ban to use his personal influence to urge the government of Myanmar (also known as Burma) to allow increased access for aid to Rakhine State (also known as Arakan).
The organisations - which also includes Refugees International, the US Campaign for Burma and the Asia-Pacific Refugee Rights Network - say that humanitarian access to temporary camps where at least 140,000 Rohingya have lived since fleeing their homes following "horrific violence" in June and October 2012 is "severely limited" thanks to the policies of the government and their "failure to ensure a secure environment for the delivery of aid".
The UN said on Wednesday that it estimated almost 4,000 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh were stranded at sea, 2000 of whom had been stranded for more than 40 days on boats off the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
They add that "at least 80,000 Rohingya have fled Myanmar by boat, facing an extremely precarious fate at sea because of the desperate situation they face in their own country".
This ongoing crisis has made headlines around the world in recent days after thousands of Rohingyas - along with some Bangladeshis - have been left stranded in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The UN said on Wednesday that it estimated almost 4,000 people from Myanmar and Bangladesh were stranded at sea, 2000 of whom had been stranded for more than 40 days on boats off the coasts of Myanmar and Bangladesh.
While the governments of a number of South-East Asian countries initially refused to grant them permission to land, the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia have since relented and have said they will now allow them to land on the understanding that the international community will ensure they are repatriated or resettled within a year. The Myanmar Government has said that it was ready to provide humanitarian assistance to boat people but refused to attend talks involving Asian governments this week.
In their letter, the organisations say that according to sources within Burma, at least 70 per cent of the Rohingya have no access to safe water or sanitation, only two per cent of Rohingya women give birth in a hospital and there is just one doctor per 160,000 people - well above the World Health Organization recommendation of one doctor for every 5,000 people. They say that while the humanitarian crisis is most acute in the camps of the internally displaced peoples, "it is important to note than around 800,000 Rohingyas living outside the camps are also in urgent need of assistance".
"In some area the rates of malnutrition are over 20 per cent and the provision of health services is almost non-existent."
The letter quotes the Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Baroness Amos - who visited camps in Rahkine State in 2014 as saying that the camps ranked among the worse she had ever seen. "It's a dire situation and we have to do something about it."
Noting the success Mr Ban had in negotiating access for international humanitarian aid following Cyclone Nargis in 2008, the groups have urged Mr Ban to take a "personal lead" in negotiations with the government of Burma "for humanitarian aid to be provided to all in need, regardless of race of religion".
"Hundreds of thousands of people who have little food, medicine or shelter and have been stripped not only of their citizenship but also their basic dignity are looking to you and the United Nations for help. We appeal to you not to fail them."
"It is time for the international community to work together to address this crisis, both the immediate humanitarian emergency and the longer term root causes, and that is why we have joined with other organisations in writing to the secretary-general..."
- Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of the UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of the UK-based Christian Solidarity Worldwide, says the organisation is "deeply disturbed" at the "human tragedy" facing the Rohingya people, thousands of whom had fled displacement camps where they face "severe racial and religious persecution".
"It is time for the international community to work together to address this crisis, both the immediate humanitarian emergency and the longer term root causes, and that is why we have joined with other organisations in writing to the secretary-general..."
Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today that Australia would not be resettling any of the refugees within its borders and wouldn't do anything to encourage the people smuggling trade.
"Nope, nope, nope," was the Prime Minister's response when asked if Australia would play any role in offering resettlement to any of the thousands of migrants caught up in South East Asia's refugee crisis. "I'm sorry. If you want to start a new life, you come through the front door, not through the back door," he said.
Rev Dr Peter Catt, chair of the Australian Churches' Refugee Taskforce, called on the Australian Government to show moral and political leadership and to apply diplomatic pressure to Myanmar and bordering locations where the persecution of Rohingyas is causing widespread suffering and displacement.
He said Australia could immediately take an active and constructive role in supporting the UNHCR to send mobile processing teams to the points of disembarkation, by taking in more refugees from the region and by supporting Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to help disembark people and provide material aid and medical support."

Thursday 21 May 2015

The two Dorothys: Dorothy Soelle and Dorothy Day and A Radical Christian Creed

Into the Editor's email, from time to time, drops this anthology of interesting stuff. The site also hosts lots of blogs.

Among to-days riches, I have discovered Dorothee Soelle.  Seems to me that Dorothee is a wonderful book-end for that English-speaking Dorothy, Dorothy Day.  Both Dorothy-s are worthy of exploration. Here is more about Dorothy Soelle

In among all this, along with the discovery of Dorothee Soelle, has come the discovery of a blog called The Moltmanniac honouring the work of Jurgen Moltmann -- but all that will be saved for another day.  Below I am posting A Radical Christian Creed by Dorothee Soelle.

CREDO
I believe in God
who created the world not ready made
like a thing that must forever stay what it is
who does not govern according to eternal laws
that have perpetual validity
nor according to natural orders
of poor and rich,
experts and ignoramuses,
people who dominate and people subjected.
I believe in God
who desires the counter-argument of the living
and the alteration of every condition
through our work
through our politics.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who was right when he
“as an individual who can’t do anything”
just like us
worked to alter every condition
and came to grief in so doing
Looking to him I discern
how our intelligence is crippled,
our imagination suffocates,
and our exertion is in vain
because we do not live as he did
Every day I am afraid
that he died for nothing
because he is buried in our churches,
because we have betrayed his revolution
in our obedience to and fear
of the authorities.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who is resurrected into our life
so that we shall be free
from prejudice and presumptuousness
from fear and hate
and push his revolution onward
and toward his reign
I believe in the Spirit
who came into the world with Jesus,
in the communion of all peoples
and our responsibility for what will become of our earth:
a valley of tears, hunger, and violence
or the city of God.
I believe in the just peace
that can be created,
in the possibility of meaningful life
for all humankind,
in the future of this world of God.
Amen

Wednesday 20 May 2015

Broaden your brain time. Who are the Rohingyas who are in the news?

Galilee Basin Alliance correspondence - #1

The Galilee Basin Alliance doesn't have a web presence - so I have decided to keep the record searchable etc. I will give them some blog space. 
Picture at left is from here

Galilee Basin Alliance

22:48 (12 hours ago)
to bcc: me

Preventing political advocacy by environment groups an 'attack on democracy'
May 18, 2015 -

Political reporter

Any move by the Coalition to narrow the definition of what constitutes an "environmental organisation" – and strip them of their charitable status as a result - would represent an "attack on Australian democracy", legal experts have warned.

Donors to 600 Australian environment groups, including Greenpeace and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), face losing the right to deduct donations from their tax as a parliamentary committee investigates the register of organisations administered by the federal environment department.
Campaigners believe the inquiry is being driven by the mining industry. It was announced in March after a number of state-based Minerals Councils began publicly agitating for the charity status of environment groups to be revoked following effective campaigns against threats to the Great Barrier Reef, the coal seam gas industry and Queensland's mega expansion of coal mining.
They believe there is a political edge to the inquiry because the government has chosen to focus on the estimated $90 million returned to individuals for donations to environment groups rather than the $1.6 billion in deductions associated with churches and the big welfare charities and aid agencies.

The inquiry, chaired by Liberal backbencher Alex Hawke, will assess whether environment organisations focus on "on-ground" activities or political advocacy and whether they should retain "deductible gift recipient [DGR] status".
Legal academics have raised concerns around freedom of speech and the likelihood of a High Court challenge if the government tried to dictate that groups stick to "on-ground" activities and stay out of the political sphere as the cost of retaining their charitable status.
In a submission to the inquiry, six members of Adelaide University's law school said any legislative change that weakens debate about matters of public importance "has the potential to weaken Australian democracy".
"This participation has already been weakened after federal funding cuts to state and territory conservation councils and Environmental Defenders Offices," they said.
"A definition that excluded groups engaging in political debate from the environmental register – and, thus, from DGR status – would arguably place a burden on the freedom of political communication. It would do so by removing one incentive to make donations and thus depriving those organisations of funds they would otherwise be able to use for their political advocacy activities.
"We believe narrowing the definition of 'environmental organisation' to exclude groups engaging in political debate would not only be bad policy, but would also run the risk of constitutional invalidity.
"If activities are broadly within the public good, we submit the government ought not to discriminate between them on the basis of their perceived benefit, regardless of whether they align with the government's own beliefs of what is in the public good.
Thousands of submissions from the big miners down to local grassroots environment groups and there supporters are expected.
In a speech in February, Michael Roche, chief executive of the Queensland Resources Council, questioned why the "Fight for the Reef" campaign could afford TV advertising during last year's state-of-origin series.
"The top dozen activist groups – 11 of which have tax deductible status – have an estimated 476 staff. Their annual revenues total almost $90 million. They are combining these resources to go up against fossil fuels," he told a dinner hosted by the Australian Pipeline Industry Association.
"As we know in Queensland, the Great Barrier Reef is being used as a stalking horse … Activists are misrepresenting the threats to the reef from shipping and ports – ignoring in the main the scientifically documented pressures from crown of thorns starfish, poor water quality, bleaching and storms – which we can expect are doing more damage right now.
"The whole aim of this campaign and others is to pressure governments into making coal and gas exports from Queensland uneconomic. Remember, for the activists it's all about incremental gain."
Prime Minister Tony Abbott's conservative counterpart in Canada Stephen Harper has launched special tax audits on environmental groups and recently widened that to other aid organisations. He has been accused of "bullying tactics" and trying to silence criticism of the energy sector.
Russia, China and India have passed laws to silence opposition to mining and energy developments.

=================================================================================================================================

Federal Government push to strip environmental organisations of their tax deductibility status

8 May 2015
The federal government is secretly planning a big new tax! It’s not of the fossil fuel industry, which over the past six years received an average yearly subsidy of $2.9 billion.[1] It’s not on the huge multinational companies that avoid Australian tax through offshore tax havens. [2] – It’s on you! [3] By taking away your tax deduction on donations to non-profit environmental organisations the federal government is taxing you for trying to make the world a better place. [4]
The House of Representatives Environment Committee has launched an inquiry into the official register of environmental groups that hold tax-deductible status. You can have your say addressing the terms of reference before 21 May 2015.

Have your say by using our easy template to lodge a quick submission.
Simply:
  1. Download template submission
  2. Insert your details and examples relevant to you/your group. The Committee prefers unique/personalised submissions so make the submission as individual as you can.
  3. Remove highlights/instructions in the template document.
  4. Sign the submission if possible, however, if you do not have the technology to do this it will still be accepted unsigned.
  5. Save as a pdf document (Committee will also accept if submission is in the body of an email).
  6. Upload to the Committee website or email to the address provided in the template.
  7. Once submitted DO NOT distribute to any other person or group until advised by the Committee.
  8. Please tell us by email  if you make a submission.

Lodging a submission online is preferred. Submissions can also be emailed directly to the committee secretariat.
Committee Secretary
House of Representatives Standing Committee on the Environment
PO Box 6021
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600


===============================================================================

Government MP steps up campaign against eco-charity tax concessions

      Fri 10 Apr 2015  
More than 100 environment groups face being struck off a register that gives them tax deductibility status enjoyed by charities and research organisations.
A parliamentary inquiry into the Register of Environmental Organisations has begun taking submissions, with some Government MPs agitating for a cull of the 600-strong register.
Queensland LNP senator Matthew Canavan said a preliminary audit showed eco-charities were getting tax deductibility status to engage in political rather than environmental activity.
"We've got 100 to 150 groups that seem to have their purpose at stopping industrial development, not just mining, some of those developments include tourism developments or agricultural developments but engaging in what I would view as a political debate, not the environmental debate," Senator Canavan said.
He said there had been a spike in groups campaigning against coal mining, and locals in his state were concerned jobs were being lost.
"There are a large minority who are clearly engaged primarily in trying to stop fossil fuel development in Australia and I don't think it's right that Australian taxpayers, including people who work in the mining industry, are asked to fund those activities," he said.
I wish we hadn't taken this money, and that's simply because we have in Canberra enough people that are in control of Government that are fiercely anti-environment, and very ideologically so.
Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth
Many Government MPs would like the list to include only groups that do practical environment work.
Committee chair Alex Hawke believes a tightening is likely.
"I think there will be some evidence to say, and we'll see what it does say, that we should tighten the definition of a charity for environmental groups," Mr Hawke said.
Cam Walker from Friends of the Earth believes that protesting and lobbying is important environmental work.
"I think the Australian people are very sharp, they realise that protecting the environment isn't just a case of planting some trees," Mr Walker said.
"They realise that in the current context it's political activity that brings about change."

Government accused of being driven by ideology

Friends of the Earth has already come under Government scrutiny.
In the run-up to the last election it received a $130,000 donation which was spent on market research and used in conjunction with GetUp! for political campaigning.
It is currently being audited by the Australian Tax Office, but has been cleared in a separate Environment Department investigation. 
"I wish we hadn't taken this money, and that's simply because we have in Canberra enough people that are in control of Government that are fiercely anti-environment, and very ideologically so," Mr Walker said.
The inquiry will also scrutinise auspicing arrangements, where groups with tax deductibility status collect for those that do not have it.
"Often you look at some of these groups which have been around for a long time, but they're linked to affiliates that I know in northern Tasmania have been involved in illegal activities, illegal protest activities, trying to run down legitimate businesses in northern Tasmania" said Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic, who has led the push for the inquiry.
Mr Walker from Friends of the Earth said audits had shown auspicing was legal under the act.

Inquiry 'more about politics than facts'

Environment NGOs said funding had already been cut for environmental campaigns and lawyers, and the latest move was part of a campaign against the sector.
"The current House of Representatives inquiry is an attempt to silence the environment movement. We have no doubt that this is more about politics than about facts," Mr Walker said.
Other groups like the Institute of Public Affairs (IPA), which campaigns on behalf of big business to remove environmental protections, also have tax deductibility status.
NGO academic and vice-president of Environment Victoria, Joan Staples, said that was hypocritical.
"The department that scrutinises them, which is not the Environment Department but the Industry Department, should be scrutinising them much more closely and look at whether they really are producing what that tax deductibility status requires of them," she said.
The IPA declined to be interviewed but said not all money raised was tax deductible.

-- 

Tuesday 19 May 2015

Senate Inquiry into slave and exploited labour in Australia's fresh food chain. Woolworths admits moral responsibility but not legal responsibility.

Cross-posted with The Network

NUW National Union of WorkersUNITY IS STRENGTH Call 1300 275 689

Today saw NUW members speak at the first Senate Inquiry into Australia's temporary work visas. The NUW remains firm:
  • Coles and Woolworths have the power to fix this
  • Labour hire agencies need to be regulated
  • No workers should be forced to work for poverty wages in our fresh food supply chain
  • We cannot allow a two-class system to remain in Australia. Every worker counts!
Woolworths also appeared at today's Senate Inquiry, and admitted moral responsibility for underpaid farm workers.

However, Woolworths are still refusing to meet with workers and the NUW to talk about a Fair Food Agreement to eradicate exploitation from our fresh food. Help put the pressure on and sign the petition here!

And remember, we all have friends and family that can help. Share this petition with your community.

NUW's Godfrey Moase, Winnie Lin, Caterina Cinanni, Sherry Huang & George Robertson with Senator Sue Lines & Senator Deborah O'Neill

If you haven't watched the Four Corners program that exposed exploitation, you can watch it here. In unity,
Tim Kennedy
National Secretary
National Union of Workers
National Union of Workers
Email: nuwassist@nuw.org.au
Call: 1300 275 689
National: 833 Bourke St, Docklands VIC 3008
Click here for office locations
Website: www.nuw.org.au

© Copyright National Union of Workers


Previous posts referencing this topic 
can be found on The Network site at:

Part 1 - Slavery in Australia. Is the 'Let 'er rip" attitude on visas for overseas workers going to be stopped? The Robinvale experience

Part 2 - Names have been named in "Slaving Away".  Here they are recorded below and their responses.

Part 3: The conscious consumer becomes the aware and ethical shopper.  Destroy the slavers from the checkouts of Australia!

What are you buying? How did it get to you?  Whose hands has it passed through?


 

Sunday 10 May 2015

To all refugee mothers everywhere in the detention centres and in the communnity....

Please copy this post to 
your Facebook, your Google+, Twitter - 
everywhere you can - 
so that mothers cruelly detained will know 
that there are Australian mothers, parents, grandparents, 
thinking of them and their children on this day.

Thursday 7 May 2015

The old adage - "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" - seems to fit the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott

From Jody - Common Grace



Dear Friend,

Would you tweet Bill Shorten right now? Here’s why. 

Last December, we crowd-funded solar panels for Kirribilli House, the Prime Minister’s Sydney residence, as a gift for our nation. 142 generous Common Grace members contributed and a group of local pastors delivered news of the gift to the Prime Minister’s Manly office.

However in March, we were informed that the gift was rejected by the Abbott Government, in a letter from Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Michael McCormack MP, citing concerns about Kirribilli House’s heritage listing and the cost of cleaning the solar panels.

When the Australian Solar Council advised us the Government’s reasons for not accepting the gift didn’t stack up, local pastors again returned to the Prime Minister’s office with an open letter signed by almost 1000 Common Grace members, urging him to accept the gift. Mainstream media covered the story extensively.

Unfortunately this week, we received a second letter, again rejecting the gift. This time there were no reasons given.

Christians across Australia have expressed deep concern that our current Government has shown itself to be unwilling to lead in caring for God’s creation and is out of step with the rest of the world. While the world as a whole has added more new renewable capacity than fossil fuels and nuclear combined in 2013 and 20141, here in Australia, large-scale renewables investment has plummeted by 88% in 20142.

But if the PM won’t show leadership on renewables, then who will? We’ve given Mr Abbott two chances to accept the gift – perhaps it’s only fair that we give Bill Shorten at least one.


As Christians, we take caring for God’s good creation seriously. We have a unique perspective that our elected representatives need to hear. Our world is a gift to share not a resource to exploit.

For us, this isn't about partisan politics – it is about love, justice and wisdom. This is putting into practice our calling to care for God's world and to show love to the world's poor who are most affected by climate change.


The Labor Party is set to make critical decisions about their climate justice targets at the Labor conference in July. If Labor commits to stronger renewables and emission reduction targets, it will pressure the Government to do the same and help to position renewables as a major issue at the next Federal election.

Let’s make sure Mr Shorten hears the message loud and clear – Christians want to see a clean energy future.


From Jody, Byron, Kylie and the whole Common Grace team.


TweetBillShorten.jpg  

P.S. Please continue to pray for PM Abbott, Mr Shorten, and all of our political representatives. Let's pray that they will realise their potential to create more just and sustainable world and lead with courage.
P.P.S If you don't have Twitter, that's OK. Share this graphic on Facebook from here.


References:
1. The Global Renewable Energy Boom: How Australia is Missing Out, Climate Council, 20/3/15
2. BNEF: New Clean Power Capacity Passes New Fossil Fuel Capacity … Never Turning Back, Clean Technica, 25/04/15

Common Grace
http://www.commongrace.org.au/

Wednesday 6 May 2015

Picked and packed by exploited labour



The temporary visa program is broken and facilitates the gross exploitation of migrant workers, a view confirmed by the Four Corners program that aired last night.

Urgent action must be taken by the Federal Government to clamp down and regulate the entire temporary visa and labour hire system and remove rogue operators.

There should be an immediate halt to any expansion of the temporary work visa program until the full outcome of the Senate Inquiry is known.

National Union of Workers

http://www.actu.org.au/actu-media/media-releases/2015/temporary-visa-program-front-for-slave-labour

Anglican Church of Australia and divestment from those entities which place the environment at risk

Below is the seven page document referencing divestment by the Anglican Church of Australia in corporations who place the environment at risk. The document can be read within the post or downloaded from the post. 

The Church of England and the Anglican Church in Australia divest


This information has come via a newsletter from the Galilee Basin Alliance
To keep up with what the Anglican Church in Australia is doing about divestment, please go here.
Advocacy would be pleased to receive information about what is happening on the ground in Anglican dioceses across Australia.  Our email address is on the side bar and you will find our social media links there too. 
April 30, 2015 10:03 pm

Church of England blacklists coal and tar sands investments


Pilita Clark, Environment Correspondent

FORT MCMURRAY, ALBERTA, CANADA - NOVEMBER 2008: Aerial views of the mines of Syncrude Canada Ltd and Suncor Energy Inc, inlcuding one of Syncrude's tailing ponds, with oil remains floating on it. Tar sands, or oil sands, are very dense and contain a form of petroleum The world's largest reserves of tar sands in Canada and Venezuela. Tar sands could equate to approximately two thirds of the total global petroleum resource. Until recently it was financially not viable to extract the oil from the sands, but new technology and rising oil prices have now made it viable. (Photo by Veronqiue de Viguerie/Getty Images)©Getty
ewslOil floats on a pond at a tar sands mine in Canada
The Church of Englandone of the world’s wealthiest religious institutions, has decided to blacklist coal and tar sands investments, in a striking victory for campaigners seeking to make fossil fuels as unpopular as tobacco.




The Church announced on Thursday that it would sell £12m of its holdings in thermal coal and tar sands companies, two of the most polluting fossil fuels. “Climate change is the most pressing moral issue in our world,” said the Bishop of Salisbury, the Rt Rev Nick Holtam, lead bishop on the environment.
The move comes nearly three years after the appointment of Justin Welby, a former senior executive at the now defunct Enterprise Oil company, as Archbishop of Canterbury.
The Church, which has an investment portfolio worth more than £9bn, will no longer put its money into any company that gets more than 10 per cent of its revenues from extracting coal burnt for energy or oil from tar sands.
This means it may retain shares in companies such as BHP Billiton, which mines coal but earns a large chunk of revenues from iron ore, copper, and aluminium, said Edward Mason, the Church’s head of responsible investment. But companies that focus on coal mining, such as Peabody in the US, would be excluded.
“It’s about an alignment of interests,” Mr Mason said. “If you are a specialist coal mining company you don’t share the interest that we have in the transition to a low-carbon economy and the sense of it as a moral imperative. But if you are a BHP Billiton, where coal is a small part of your portfolio, we can have a constructive conversation with you about the future of coal for you as a company.”

In depth



View of the bed of Jacarei river dam, in Piracaia, during a drought affecting Sao Paulo state, Brazil on November 19, 2014. The Jacarei river dam is part of the Sao Paulo's Cantareira system of dams, which supplies water to 45% of the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo --20 million people-- and is now at historic low. AFP PHOTO / NELSON ALMEIDA (Photo credit should read NELSON ALMEIDA/AFP/Getty Images)
The latest news and analysis on the world’s changing climate and the political moves afoot to tackle the problem
The Church’s move makes it one of the most prominent recruits to a grassroots campaign that is spreading around the world and is modelled on the 1980s divestment movement to end apartheid in South Africa.
Heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune, California’s Stanford University and the World Council of Churches have already said they will reduce or cut fossil fuel investments. The Financial Times reported this week that Prince Charles is also shunning such holdings.
Pope Francis, meanwhile, is expected to deliver an encyclical letter — the most important form of teaching by a Catholic pontiff — in June, that will urge the world’s 1.2bn Catholics to consider the risks of climate change.
Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, a member of the Pope’s inner circle who wrote an early draft of the encyclical document, told a conference in Rome on Tuesday that burning fossil fuels was disrupting the earth’s delicate ecological balance “on an almost unfathomable scale”.
The Vatican’s move has stoked the expectations of environmental activists ahead of a global climate change agreement due to be agreed in Paris at the end of this year.


Steam rises from a smoke stack at the Suncor tar sands processing plant near Fort McMurray, Alberta, September 17, 2014. In 1967 Suncor helped pioneer the commercial development of Canada's oil sands, one of the largest petroleum resource basins in the world. Picture taken September 17, 2014. REUTERS/Todd Korol (CANADA - Tags: ENERGY ENVIRONMENT) - RTR47FSJ
Some climate-conscious investors prefer engagement on fossil fuels
Until now, the Church of England has been engaging with the oil, gas and coal companies it has invested in, rather than divesting from them. It led a successful shareholder push earlier this month to encourage BP to be more transparent about how climate change could affect its business.
This engagement work is likely to continue, said Tom Joy, director of investments at the Church Commissioners, which manages Church assets. “But this new policy rightly goes beyond to incorporate investment exclusions for companies focused on the highest carbon fossil fuels where we do not think engagement would be productive,” he added.
Pierre Jameson, chief investment officer of the Church of England Pensions Board, said: “We need governments meeting in Paris at the end of this year to agree long-term global emissions targets with a clear pathway to a low-carbon future.”




Financial Times:



---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton in firing line as UK charities shun fossil fuelsJames Chessel
Australian Financial Review
http://www.afr.com/business/energy/rio-tinto-and-bhp-billiton-in-firing-line-as-uk-charities-shun-fossil-fuels-20150503-1myoi3 (Paywall)
May 3 2015

BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto may not be immediately affected by the Church of England's decision to shun energy coal and tar sands, but the big miners are an increasingly difficult investment choice for charitable foundations, universities and even the royal family in the United Kingdom. 
The Church of England, which is one of the world's richest religious institutions with a £9 billion investment fund, last week became a high-profile addition to a global campaign to blacklist fossil fuel investments when it announced a £12 million divestment in any company generating more than 10 per cent of its revenues from thermal coal used in power stations or the production of oil from tar sands.
"It marks the start of a process of divestment as well as engagement with fossil fuel companies and better aligns the church's investment practice with its belief, theology and practice," said the Right Reverend Nick Holtam, lead bishop on the environment for the church.
"Climate change is the most pressing moral issue in our world."
The Church of England divestment – which comes three years after the appointment of former oil executive Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury – was not the only victory in the UK for campaigners seeking to end investment in companies that produced fossil fuels.
The Financial Times revealed Prince Charles, the National Trust, the Church of England and the universities of Oxford and Edinburgh were reviewing their shares in such companies.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reported seven UK charitable foundations – including three linked to the Sainsbury family which founded the UK's second-largest supermarket chain – worth a collective £234 million had decided to sell their fossil fuel investments and re-invest the money in green businesses.
"Fossil fuel companies have not taken the opportunity to wind down or change their business models," said the statement from the foundations. "They are now significantly overvalued. The half a trillion dollars spent annually seeking new reserves will be wasted. The smart investors have already divested from coal."

'Moral responsibility'

Both the Church of England and the foundations argue the continued use of fossil fuels contributed to income inequality among nations.
"The church has a moral responsibility to speak and act on both environmental stewardship and justice for the world's poor who are most vulnerable to climate change," said the Reverend Professor Richard Burridge.

Divestment plans in UK have been announced by the University of Glasgow, the British Medical AssociationSOAS, University of London as well as the publishers of The Guardian, which has launched its own campaign: Keep it in the ground.
In the United States, heirs to the Rockefeller oil fortune as well as California's Stanford University have pledged to cut fossil fuel investments.
The Church of England's pension board is a small shareholder in BHP and Rio with a combined holding worth £19 million according to its last published annual report in 2013.
Both companies produce energy coal but not enough to bring revenues above the 10 per cent threshold because of  their substantial iron ore, copper and, in the case of BHP, oil earnings.
A spokesperson for the church, Claire Barraclough, was unable to say how the church arrived at the 10 per cent number.
It is understood both miners have held discussions with the church and its fund manager, CCLA, last year. 
"Action for A", a coalition of investor groups backed by CCLA, a UK fund manager which invests on behalf of charities, this year successfully pushed for resolution at the annual meetings of BP and Shell obliging the oil majors to set out the potential cost of climate change to their businesses.
A spokesperson for CCLA said there were not plans to file any resolutions at the upcoming BHP and Rio annual meetings. 
A CCLA representative complimented BHP chairman Jac Nasser on the company's "open engagement, efforts and commitment" to discussing climate change issues at last year's annual meeting, adding "we were also delighted to see you sign the World Bank's statement on carbon pricing".
While the institutions that have made fossil fuel divestments hold a relatively small number of shares in Australian mining companies, some BHP and Rio executives are privately concerned the campaign could tempt larger shareholders to sell out. 
For example The Guardian is lobbying UK biomedical research charity Wellcome Trust – which had a combined $US307 million holding in Rio and BHP as at September 30 – to end investment in fossil fuel companies. 
The trust has held on to its BHP and Rio shares, preferring to "press for more transparent and sustainable policiesthat support transition towards a low-carbon economy". 
However, one senior mining executive it was "only a matter of time" before "some of the larger investors in resources companies withdraw from the sector". 
The executive cited Bill McKibben, a US environmentalist who founded the 350.org climate campaign group, as a "new and highly sophisticated type of group that is having a serious impact pushing the divestment agenda". 
Mr McKibben had previously criticised the Church of England for failing to act on climate change. 
The anti-fossil fuel lobby is expected to make its case for divestment to be global climate change agreement at the United Nation's climate change conference in Paris in December.