Ireland is sending the right signal to the world. The country enacts a law to become the first country in the world to get rid of fossil fuels.
It is a “historic” bill, according to the Irish media. Parliament passed a bill asking the Irish Strategic Investment Fund to no longer invest in fossil fuels.
The bill, presented by MP Thomas Pringle, still needs to be considered by the Finance Commission before returning to parliament.
This could pave the way for other countries, in Europe or elsewhere, to join in preserving the planet’s natural resources.
Pringle criticizes some companies’ unethical funding principle. “We cannot accept their actions as millions of poor in underdeveloped countries bear the burden of the forces of climate change as they experience famine, mass emigration and civil strife accordingly,” the MP said.
“The Irish political system is recognizing what most people know: to keep a chance of coping with climate change and the disasters it brings, we need to get out of the era of fossil fuels and stop the expansion of the industry that is at the origin of this crisis,” said Éamonn Meehan, executive director of NGO Trocaire, an Irish charity striving to overcome the challenges of poverty and injustice.
This bill is part of the Divest movement. In 15 months, 688 institutions and 58,399 people controlling $ 5,197 billion in assets have committed to no longer invest in fossil fuels.
This significant legislation is an exemplary progress from a moderately small country that could pave the way for other countries, in Europe or elsewhere, to join in preserving the planet’s natural resources. In 2015, Norway’s sovereign pension fund sold some, but not all, fossil fuel companies.
