{"id":16274,"date":"2018-05-05T12:00:33","date_gmt":"2018-05-05T12:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=16274"},"modified":"2023-05-23T17:01:20","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T15:01:20","slug":"finance-climate-change-insurances-tax-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/16274\/finance-climate-change-insurances-tax-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"If finance is upholding climate change, we will not uphold finance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It is our right, and duty, to disobey when we are unwillingly forced to participate in climate destruction. That’s why our colleagues in Sweden are challenging financial institutions by stopping payments to the state pension fund, because of the role it plays in fuelling climate change. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s civil disobedience 101, shaped in the twenty-first century. And you can <\/span>jump on board<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

\"Greenpeace
From left to right: Frode Pleym, Head of Greenpeace Sweden; Parul Sharma, Human Rights Lawyer; Pia Wickman, Greenpeace Nordic Head of Finance; Em Petersson, Campaigner
\u00a9 Christian \u00c5slund \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

How does it work?<\/b><\/p>\n\n

In Sweden, as elsewhere, everyone contributes to the state pension fund through taxes. These funds then invest in oil, coal and gas (with the exception of <\/span>some countries like Ireland<\/span><\/a>). This means that with every hour you work, like it or not, you are contributing to climate change in more ways that you realise.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

In an act of classic civil disobedience, Greenpeace Sweden has declared that from now on, they <\/span>refuse to participate<\/span><\/a> in this. They <\/span>will refrain from paying a part of the employer pension contribution that corresponds to the environmentally damaging activity caused by fossil fuel investments. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

Instead they will put the money in a safe and closed account to be returned when it will no longer be used to further harm this planet. They <\/span>will continue to do this until the state introduces a policy that is in line with the Paris agreement, Swedish climate policy and national environment goals.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s the problem? <\/b><\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Paul Langrock \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Paul Langrock \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Brown coal power plants operated by Swedish company, Vattenfall
\u00a9 Paul Langrock \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Paul Langrock \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-16292″\/>
Brown coal power plants operated by Swedish company, Vattenfall
\u00a9 Paul Langrock \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Investment in fossil fuels causes double damage. Primarily it accelerates climate change and lock us into the fossil era, but it also withholds necessary investments in the solutions that are desperately needed. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

According to a recent<\/span> UN report<\/span><\/a>, the world needs <\/span>$<\/span>90 trillion in the next 15 years to achieve the goals set by the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development. The message is clear: we need to increase exponentially the investment flows into solutions like renewable energy and energy efficiency, and avoid financing fossil fuel projects.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

If we don\u2019t change the current financial sector, it will run the world into the ground. We need to challenge access to funding for whole polluting sectors, as well as <\/span>stopping fossil fuel projects<\/span><\/a>. We need to disrupt the entire financial system to make it stop being one of the main drivers of unsustainability on our planet.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

Reaching climate targets requires that the vast majority of fossil fuels are kept in the ground, meaning that the assets of the companies extracting them will be <\/span>stranded<\/span><\/a>. But fossil fuel companies like to pretend that this carbon bubble doesn\u2019t exist. If investors like pension funds don\u2019t realise this soon and withdraw from this risky business we might soon see an <\/span>economic meltdown<\/span><\/a> similar to the one in 2008. <\/span><\/p>\n\n

What can we do? <\/b><\/p>\n\n

\"'Global \u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div>” class=”wp-image-16293″\/>
‘Global Divestment Day’ in Stockholm
\u00a9 Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The good news is that the <\/span>movement to divest from fossil fuels<\/span><\/a> is spreading fast. Students are <\/span>getting their universities<\/span><\/a> to divest, <\/span>municipalities<\/span><\/a> and major institutions like the<\/span> World Bank<\/span><\/a> and the gigantic<\/span> Norwegian oil fund<\/span><\/a> are stopping funding to fossil fuel projects.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

But we\u2019re not moving fast enough. Climate change is threatening the very existence of life on this planet as we know it. That isn\u2019t an overstatement. And that\u2019s why we need to scale up the drive for divestment, and stop investing in the pollution of our planet. You can help the campaign by signing <\/span>the petition<\/span><\/a> to get the Swedish Pension Funds out of fossil fuels. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Climate change is threatening the very existence of life on this planet as we know it. That’s why we need to stop investing in the pollution of our planet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":16293,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[65],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-16274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-energy-revolution","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16274"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16274\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59930,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16274\/revisions\/59930"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16274"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=16274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}