Cape Town Heeds the Fossil Fuel Divestment Call
- Lindsay Meiman
- Jul 23, 2017
- 1 min read
Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille has announced the city’s commitment to divest from fossil fuel assets in favour of more sustainable investments, joining cities around the world in withdrawing their funds from destructive coal, oil and gas industries. This announcement comes after months of campaigning from local NGO Fossil Free South Africa and 350.org, who targeted Cape Town during the Global Divestment Mobilisation in May.
In her statement, the Mayor said: “I have informed our Finance Directorate that we are going to divest from fossil fuel assets and companies in favour of greener and cleaner investments which are in line with our vision of a sustainable future. We are going to instruct investors looking after our money not to put our money into fossil fuel-related companies or for it to be used to fund the development of dirty and unsustainable projects. We want our investments to be aligned with our principles of resilience and sustainability.”
Reacting to the announcement Ahmed Mokgopo, divestment campaigner with 350.org said: “We applaud the cities moral leadership in committing to fossil fuel divestment. This is a step in the right direction, and we look forward to the City publicising a clear timeline for divestment to take place. As more countries and cities commit to action on climate change, it makes sense to divest from fossil fuels now.”
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