Environmentalists agree with Bill Gates that massive investment in low-carbon innovation is urgent (“Fossil fuel divestment has ‘zero’ climate impact”, September 18). However, the billionaire overlooks the major contribution the divestment movement is making in this uphill battle.
Fossil fuel-free investing is, in fact, low-risk and profitable. The financial numbers on the fossil fuel industry’s market performance no longer add up. It has lost its competitive edge. To maintain market share the oil and gas (and coal) sector flouts the rule of law, confounds fair play, ignores shareholder concerns, distorts science and frustrates political discourse. All to advance a weak economic rationale from a bygone era. The divestment movement uses protest as a political device to open a new consensus on low-carbon initiatives. Corporate boards are the battlegrounds for debate because the fossil fuel industry has succeeded in undermining the Paris Agreement and any policy proposal that runs counter to unbridled exploration and development.
Mr Gates is one of the leaders of the game-changing technological revolution. But the IT transformation is different from the emerging green revolution. The brilliant innovations of Mr Gates and others were tested on a clear playing field. By contrast, the fossil fuel industry has decided that green innovation undermines its business goals. Mr Gates is right on the need to invest heavily in zero-carbon research and development but he also needs to stand with us who see divestment from fossil fuels as a moral and pragmatic imperative while awaiting that “energy miracle” he hangs his hopes on.
Tom Sanzillo Director of Finance, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis
This letter to the editor appeared in the European print edition and FT online: [$]Fossil fuel divestment feeds the ‘energy miracle’
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