Disinvestment debate
The Kirk is on the verge of losing our moral credibility on the defining issue of the century. With fires burning from the Amazon to Siberia and another summer of record temperatures, we are rightly asking congregations to lobby parliaments and governments, calling on them to do more to tackle the climate emergency.
But, despite years of ‘constructive engagement’ having unsurprisingly failed to persuade oil and gas companies to stop destroying the world, the Kirk is as yet unwilling to take the single most straightforward step we can to show the Church’s approach to saving creation amounts to more than just rhetoric. How can I persuade my fellow Parliamentarians that ours is a voice worth listening to when we cannot get our own house in order? How can we call on others to do more whilst holding on to millions of pounds of investments in the very industries which are quite literally killing our friends and neighbours around the planet? While some $10 trillion has been divested from fossil fuels by other organisations - without the calamitous effects some have warned of – the Church of Scotland has repeated the same debate year after year, failing to take action. If we strive to be a leader in the fight against the climate crisis and to be a voice worth listening to in Scottish society, we simply must finish this debate and divest from fossil fuels at next year’s Assembly.