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Progress Report on the 2014 Business Resolution in Fossil Fuel Divestment - YouTube
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(bouncy music)
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- [Narrator] We have only a decade
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to avoid the direst of
consequences of the climate crisis.
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The 2014 General Assembly heard this call
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and overwhelmingly passed
a business resolution
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on fossil fuel divestment.
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- My intention was to help
UUs live into their values.
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But it was really Bill
McKibben's Do the Math tour
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in 2012 after the election that
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prompted our actions.
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- [Narrator] The resolution called the UUA
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to reduce its fossil fuel holdings
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and for those few retained,
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to use its shareholder
rights to pressure companies
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to take action on climate change.
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- Climate change really percolated up to
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the top of the issues
that we were working on.
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- When I became UUA President,
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I was astounded at the work that
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we were doing through the
Common Endowment Fund,
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and the impact that we were having
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when it came to advocating
for greater responsibility
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from petroleum companies
and diminishing emissions
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and in working for climate justice.
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- Climate justice is a
movement responding to
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the urgency of the climate crisis
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in a way that actually
builds equity and justice
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in our societies.
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- [Narrator] Our shareholder
influence is enhanced by
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working with other investors through the
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Interfaith Center on Corporate
Responsibility or ICCR.
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- ICCR started in the
early 1970s and from there
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pioneered the strategy of
shareholder investor engagement
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on the environmental and social issues.
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And the UUA was there,
almost from the beginning
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in the 1970s.
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- [Narrator] Over three decades,
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the faith community has catalyzed powerful
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investor coalitions
acting on climate change.
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- We are shareholders.
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And being long term
shareholders means something.
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And now we belong to a group of people
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like Climate Action 100 Plus which is
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$33 trillion of invested capital,
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one-third of the invested
capital in the world.
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And when we walk in and
say something to somebody,
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they listen these days.
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- And so by working together,
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they have a common set of concerns
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they put before 160 plus
companies, globally,
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and they engage them, they talk to them,
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they meet with them, they
share research with each other.
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- [Narrator] Since GA
2014, the UUA has filed,
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or co-filed, 32
climate-related resolutions.
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- As an example, at Exxon,
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when we demanded a scenario plan
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for how Exxon was going
to make a transition,
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a couple years ago, we
managed to get a 62% vote
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on that resolution, and
that was just unheard of.
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- It was really the first time,
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and a real turning point,
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where the largest institutional
investors in the world,
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the Blackrocks, the
Vanguards, the Fidelities,
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it was your mainstream investors who said,
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"This is really important,
and this company needs
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to produce this report."
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- At BP and Shell and Glencore,
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all three of those are good examples
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of really seeing targets for
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how they're going to reduce
their greenhouse gas emissions
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and plans that are much more assertive
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in terms of moving faster, deeper,
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really dramatically
changing the businesses.
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- Two years ago, the UUA joined Westpac
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in filing a shareholder resolution
at Occidental Petroleum,
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that got 67% of the vote.
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It was the first time an
environmentally-focused
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shareholder resolution had ever passed
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at a US oil and gas company.
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Since then, the company has gone on
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and is now thinking about
ways to become carbon neutral.
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- Boston Common is the co-author
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of a report called Disclosing the Facts,
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and last year the focus was on methane.
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And what we found is that a company that
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UUA engaged with, Range Resources,
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had significantly moved in terms of
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its performance around methane.
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So where it used to be a laggard,
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it's actually improved its
practices and its disclosure.
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- Trump administration is
basically overturning rules
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on methane emissions,
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rules designed to reduce those emissions.
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After a conversation with Exxon,
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they came out with a very
public statement saying
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that they opposed that,
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and they encouraged the administration
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to leave the rules in place.
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- I think we're at a tipping point now.
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Major companies globally
understand the issue
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of climate change and the threat
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it is to their business.
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- [Narrator] We are more powerful
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because we unite our assets in the
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UU Common Endowment Fund
and we're more effective
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because we work in partnership with
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other faith and values-based investors.
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- The more that Unitarian
Universalist Congregations
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are invested in the Common Endowment,
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the more power that we have to advocate
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as a whole faith on behalf of our values,
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so I invite congregations
to consider seriously
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the UU Common Endowment Fund as a place
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to hold their endowment resources,
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and advocate on our values together.
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