Leading up to what's being called the world's largest gathering ever on climate change, being held in New York on Tuesday, more than just protesters and policy leaders are calling for a shift away from the fossil-fuel lifestyle.
Just one day before 120 heads of state speak before the United Nations on how to best address climate change, the Rockefeller family, one of the wealthiest families in the world - who made much of their fortune through Standard Oil - said that they plan to divest their Rockefeller Brothers Fund charitable organization from the same fossil fuel industry that generated much of their wealth, reported the New York Times on Sunday.
The philanthropic Rockefeller Brothers Fund will be joining the Global Divest-Invest coalition, a divestment movement that launched three years ago and now includes around 650 individuals and 180 institutions who have pledged to divest assets worth more than $50 billion from the fossil fuel industry.
From churches, universities, states, cities, hospitals and pension funds, commitments to the divest coalition have doubled since January, from 74 to 180, Reuters reported. One of the higher profile institution divestments came in May when Stanford University said it "will no longer use any of its $18.7 billion endowment to invest in coal mining companies."
As the Rockefeller Brothers Fund increases investments in alternative energy sources and begins to exit the fossil fuel industry, the fund has already completely divested from coal and tar sands. President Stephen Heintz said their decision to move away from fossil fuels would likely compliment the wishes of the man who helped build the Rockefeller wealth via Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller.
"We are quite convinced that if he were alive today, as an astute businessman looking out to the future, he would be moving out of fossil fuels and investing in clean, renewable energy," said Heintz.
And, according to the largest private bank in the world, Zurich-based UBS, it would be with good reason. In August, the bank released a report predicting "transformational changes in the utility and auto sectors" will emerge by 2020 as a result of decreased cost of solar panels and batteries. By 2025, "everybody will be able to produce and store power" to a degree that can run their homes and cars, "and it will be green and cost competitive."
