DITCHED: ‘Not Your Grandpa’s Divestment Anymore’

Fossil fuel divestment ain’t what it used to be. In a good way, if you ask advocates. In this episode — the second episode of Political Climate's special DITCHED miniseries — we get further into the weeds on what’s driving the Divest/Invest movement and where it’s going. We cover a lot and connect the dots in an interview with Justin Guay, director of global climate strategy at the Sunrise Project. Prior to joining Sunrise, Justin managed grant-making and strategy development for global coal campaigns at the ClimateWorks Foundation and Packard Foundation. He also ran the Sierra Club’s International Coal Campaign, with a special focus on international finance. In this conversation, we discuss how cutting off the flow of capital into fossil fuels has taken on a variety of different forms, as well as lessons learned from coal divestment that could influence a shift away from oil and gas. Justin addresses the tricky question of whether making fossil fuels harder to finance will actually curb demand for these products. We also talk about what a future without fossil fuels would look like, and how it could affect individual workers and even geopolitical relations. And that’s not all.  We launched the DITCHED miniseries to shed light on the divestment movement, and the growing trend of moving money out of fossil fuels and into more sustainable investments. Episodes air Mondays on Political Climate. Subscribe here! Recommended reading: Foreign Affairs: Coronavirus Bailouts Stoke Climate Change IEEFA: Over 100 Global Financial Institutions Are Exiting Coal, With More to Come GTM: Devil in the Details for World’s Largest Coal Investor Reinsurance News: California to conduct first climate-related stress test for re/insurers FT: JPMorgan Chase removes former oil boss from lead director role World Oil: Chesapeake joins more than 200 other bankrupt U.S. shale producers Political Climate is produced in partnership with the USC Schwarzenegger Institute. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play or wherever you get podcasts! This episode is brought to you with support from Lyft. Lyft is leading the transition to zero emissions vehicles with a commitment to achieve 100% electric vehicles on the Lyft platform by 2030. Learn more at lyftimpact.com/electric.