Old Boys NEWS
Brooks discusses divestment strategy
“M
oney talks,” says Selwyn House Old are to avoid seeing many places on earth become Boy Richard Brooks ’92. “It can also uninhabitable,” Richard said. walk.” Speaking virtually to a group Since the Paris Agreement five years ago, of Senior School students on “School of Life” Richard said, 60 of the largest banks in the Day April 21, Richard was referring to the recent world have put more than $8 trillion into fossil trend toward environmental divestment—the act fuel companies. “Unfortunately, our Canadian of selling off investments in fossil-fuel industries. banks are near the top of the list. And that’s not Richard started thinking about climate issues even counting pension funds…which have also while still a student at Selwyn House. He earned invested billions in fossil fuel companies.” a B.Sc. in environmental science at the University Banks and pension funds are taking the of Guelph, followed by a Master’s degree in forest wrong approach, he says. They are funding conservation from the University of Toronto. coal and tar sands mines, new pipeline projects, He has worked for a series of environmental fracking operations and expanding deep-water organizations, including Earthroots and drilling. “We don’t need new infrastructure,” Greenpeace (where he was a senior manager). Richard said. “We need to be retiring present Richard Brooks ’92 In the last few years, he shifted from forest infrastructure.” issues to finance issues, and has coordinated major projects for Also, he pointed out, “Many of these projects are violating organizations such as Stand.earth and 350.org, where he has Indigenous rights at a time when we’re trying to advance been working on divestment and climate finance work in the reconciliation.” Through destruction of wildlife habitat and U.S. since 2016. human settlements, fossil fuel developments tend to impact In 2018, Richard coordinated 350’s successful “Divest New poor communities, penalizing those who have done the least to York” campaign, which, in addition to divestment, resulted in a create the problem. ban on new fossil fuel projects and damages suits against oil and He asked Selwyn House students to suggest solutions, which gas companies. In December 2020, New York State’s $226B ranged from promoting electric vehicles and investing in solar state pension fund followed suit with divestment. and wind, to more radical tactics of eco-terrorism or simply letting the free market go wild. Denis Dariotis (Grade 11) warned that many so-called ESG (Environmental, Social and Guidance) funds that claim to be environmentally friendly are really “a Wall Street scam.” Richard agreed that government action is needed to avoid such “greenwashing.” Hugo Culver (Grade 11) said he favoured a demand-side approach, in which consumers force the issue by boycotting environmentally harmful companies. In between, he helped coordinate 2019’s global climate Richard agreed that a two-pronged approach is what is strike, which saw half a million people marching in the streets needed. “We’re only going to be successful if we tackle it all.” of Montreal (including many Selwyn House students), with A major part of the solution, Richard says, is “stopping the millions more participating worldwide. money pipeline.” We must move money out of companies that The aim of all this is “to solve the climate crisis by looking at are the greatest emitters, and into climate solutions. The way to where the money is flowing.” do that is to “de-fund and divest.” In his School of Life presentation, Richard summed up the He describes the New York State pension fund divestment as state of the world’s climate: 2020 was the hottest year on record, “a people-powered campaign that took eight years. If New York with many floods, wildfires and other extreme weather. The State can do it, any pension fund or bank can do it. impact has been twice as rapid in northern regions like Canada. “They did it because of the campaign, but they also did it Globally, the crisis is particularly hard on developing countries, because it makes financial sense, and they are legally bound to where governments and infrastructure are not as strong. make money for their pension funds. They’ve recognized that In 2015, the Paris Agreement recommended cutting global investing in coal companies that are going bankrupt…doesn’t emissions in half by 2030 and to zero by 2050, with the aim of make financial sense, particularly in the long term.” limiting global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees above pre“It’s time to put some pressure on Canadian banks.” industrial levels. This must make for some interesting family dinner “We will have to eliminate industries that emit carbon and conversation. Richard’s brother, Old Boy James ’97, works for methane and replace them with renewable energy sources if we the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce.
“The aim is to solve the climate crisis by looking at where the money is flowing.”
Veritas, page 11
