This week was a major milestone for the global campaign to divest from fossil fuels. In solidarity with our indigenous partners, the Sierra Club joined the “Divest The Globe” days of action, the largest ever coordinated protest against banks’ investments in fossil fuels.
Led by our partners at Mazaska Talks, the global protest was planned to coincide with the annual meeting of 92 of the world’s biggest banks to discuss the Equator Principles, a set of guidelines for environmental and human rights risk management used to determine which projects they will finance. The principles are supposed to ensure indigenous rights are respected and environmental damage is minimized, but many of these same banks have chosen to fund projects like the Dakota Access pipeline and the horrific human rights abuses that often come with them.
The biggest EVER protest against banks' investments in fossil fuels. Indigenous people just did that. #DivestTheGlobe #EquatorBanksAct pic.twitter.com/mi0gLfbgWK
— Mazaska Talks (@MazaskaTalks) October 24, 2017
With events in more than 50 cities across the U.S. and Canada, as well as Europe, Africa, and Australia, communities around the world sent a clear message that it’s time for accountability for banks that finance projects that threaten indigenous communities and our climate, and urged their cities and institutions to divest from these banks. Here in Washington, DC, we joined other members of the DC ReInvest Coalition for a rally outside the DC Council building to demand that the Council divest the city’s funds from Wells Fargo and reinvest in its communities.
From DC to Oakland & 50 other cities today, #DivestTheGlobe is the largest ever protest of banks' investments in fossil fuels! @MazaskaTalks pic.twitter.com/2AuEWRlr4j
— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) October 24, 2017
Wells Fargo and other big banks should be on notice. This week was proof that the global movement to defund fossil fuels is only going to get louder and more powerful.
Join the movement today by committing to move your money and bank fossil free at: sc.org/divest!