FossilFreeUMC

 “United Methodists working for a just transition to a fossil-free energy future.”

The first task of our renewed Fossil Free UMC Movement is to support the petition to General Conference calling for “fossil fuels” to be added to our list of ethical investment screens in Paragraph 717 of the Book of Discipline. This is the petition that was submitted by the California-Nevada Annual Conference. Three other annual conferences submitted similar petitions.

Read the petition, copied below. Read also the history of the UMC as a past leader in addressing Creation Justice.

Petition to the 2020 General Conference to Amend ¶717 of The Book of Discipline (2016) Sustainable and Socially Responsible Investments

Submitted and Approved by: California-Nevada Annual Conference

Full text of the Petition

Petition: Amend ¶717 as follows: Insert the words fossil fuels so that the amended paragraph reads:

¶717. Sustainable and Socially Responsible Investments—In the investment of money, it shall be the policy of The United Methodist Church that all general boards and agencies, including the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits, and all administrative agencies and institutions, including hospitals, homes, educational institutions, annual conferences, foundations, and local churches, make a conscious effort to invest in institutions, companies, corporations, or funds with policies and practices that are socially responsible, consistent with the goals outlined in the Social Principles. All United Methodist institutions shall endeavor to seek investments in institutions, companies, corporations, or funds that promote racial and gender justice, protect human rights, prevent the use of sweatshop or forced labor, avoid human suffering, and preserve the natural world, including mitigating the effects of climate change. In addition, United Methodist institutions shall endeavor to avoid investments in companies engaged in core business activities that are not aligned with the Social Principles through their direct or indirect involvement with the production of anti‐personnel weapons and armaments (both nuclear and conventional weapons), [add: fossil  fuels], alcoholic beverages or tobacco; or that are involved in privately operated correctional facilities, gambling, pornography or other forms of exploitative adult entertainment. The boards and agencies are to give careful consideration to environmental, social, and governance factors when making investment decisions and actively exercise their responsibility as owners of the companies in which they invest. This includes engaging with companies to create positive change and hold them accountable for their actions, while also considering exclusion if companies fail to act responsibly.

Background: The United Methodist Church in its 1980 General Conference resolution on energy policy was the first denomination to link the burning of fossil fuels to what was then called “global warming” and urged that nations and the church make renewable energy and conservation the main energy priorities. That resolution has been updated almost every General Conference since 1980 and as of 2016 declares that “The burning of fossil fuels causes large-scale pollution and seriously alters the environment by increasing the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere, contributing to climate change.” (Book of Resolutions)

The United Methodist Church has been calling for the nations of the world and the church to quit relying on polluting fossil fuels for energy for more than four decades and instead rely on renewable energy and serious conservation efforts. It is time that the church cease investing its money in fossil fuel mining and put its investments where its resolutions have been calling for so long.

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Sharon Delgado is a retired UM Elder, Chair of the Cal-Nevada Climate Justice Ministries Task Force, member of the Coordinating Committee of the UM Creation Justice Movement, and Convener of Fossil Free UMC. She is author of The Cross in the Midst of Creation, Love in a Time of Climate Change, and Shaking the Gates of Hell. She blogs at sharondelgado.org.