On 13th & 14th February, there were over 450 actions in 60 countries marking Global Divestment Day, called for by the ‘Go Fossil Free’ movement.
‘Go Fossil Free’ comes from the idea that educational and religious institutions, governments, and other organisations that serve the public good should divest from fossil fuels. Practically this means calling on instiutions like our schools and universities to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies, and also divest from existing fossil fuel funding within five years.
It’s an inspiring international network of campaigns and campaigners, that many YFoE groups and activists are part of. Here’s a run down of what some of us got up to this year on Global Divestment Day!
Trondheim, Norway
Happy Global Divestment Day! Fossilfrie Penger Trondheim organised a flashmob at the Univeristy of Trondheim on Friday 13th, and a rally in the city centre on the saturday to get local support for their campaign.
During the Saturday rally they held had speeches from Emma Jarvis (a member of YFoEE’s climate justice working group and Push Europe campaign) about the global context of the day, Spire – a youth organisation working on environment and development, Fagforbundet – a workers union, grønne studenter – Green party students and Klimavalgalliansen – climate election alliance. There was also entertainment from the awesome Besteforeldrenes klimaaksjon – Grandparents Climate Action. Check out their video from the action day on the 14th
In the lead up to Global Divestment Day they have been collecting signatures from University students for their campaign petition, aiming to collect 2000 (or 10% of the student population).
Visit their facebook group for more news and photos.
Paris, France
In France Jeunes Amis de la Terre did a funny video of a woman ending a relationship with her cheating bank! Is your bank cheating on you? Dump your bank!! It’s part of the larger FoE France #ChangeYourBank campaign, and served as the offical launching of the new YFoE France group.
You can LIKE Jeunes Amis de la Terre on Facebook and follow them on Twitter.
Budapest, Hungary
Simona, from Friends of the Earth Macedonia, currently studying at the Central European University in Budapest has been part of the CEU Divestment campaign and actions.
On Saturday, Feb 14th, they had an awareness raising action in the heart of the city, and launched a petition to be delivered to the new presidential Environmental Sustainability Directorate (please sign and share!). They gave out hot tea and spoke to passers-by, and had live drumming by members of Rhythms of Resistance).
Their Divestment campaign is new, and to kick it off, they have been linking up and having skype exchanges with the successful Glasgow University campaign. The first plan is to create a ‘CEU Divestment toolkit’ that will, based on CEU’s structure and decision making hierarchy, summarize what is divestment, why to divest, how to approach and who to deliver demands to, and how to engage the student body, get their support and creatively campaign on the topic with examples from universities from across the globe that are working on this.
Read more about their action here, and check out pictures from the day.
Dublin, Ireland
Young Friends of the Earth Ireland joined forces with People’s Climate Ireland to organise a spectacular event for Global Divestment Day, also marking the beginning of Ireland’s fossil fuel divestment drive. We captured some brilliant photos with our banners and signs in front of the iconic Irish Financial Services Centre, then proceeded to march down to the Central Bank of Ireland for some fun chanting, music and public engagement.
Overall, it was a successful event and we gathered many new supporters! The crew of popular Irish TV program Eco Eye were there, as was Green Party leader, Eamon Ryan. This is just the start for Ireland’s divestment campaign and we are going to spend the next few months researching, investigating and planning the next steps!
See more pictures here and here.