The Rockefeller Foundation is stepping away from oil. That’s right, the organization built by the oil tycoon himself, John D. Rockefeller, is no longer supporting oil companies. It joins with other organizations and investors that are divesting in oil.
On top of no longer investing in oil, the foundation will also be getting rid of its existing holdings. The money will be reinvested into clean renewable energy sources. It hopes to speed up the energy transition by investing more resources into it.
This marks one of the largest divestments in the oil sector this year.
There’s A Lot of Divestment
If you’ve paid attention to the stock market this year, there was no way to avoid seeing the price of oil sink.
Oil stocks are down billions this year with many stockholders looking to move away from oil and into solar and wind. Due to the nature of oil price wars and the lower demand, it’s no secret why oil has crashed hard in 2020.
While it is sure to rebound, many hope this move will speed up an energy transition.
Most notably this year is New York’s $226 billion pension fund pledging to sell off all its shares in fossil fuels and companies that contribute to climate change by 2040. And in total, according to fossilfree.org, a total of $14.49 trillion has been divested by over 1,300 institutions.
Renewable Energy Needs to Expand As Oil Recedes
Oil companies employ nearly 10 million jobs in the United States. This mass divestment does threaten many of those jobs.
To compensate for these job losses, the renewable energy sectors (solar and wind) need to expand. There needs to be a clean transition or else those employees will suffer.
Thus, while divesting from fossil fuels is important, investing those funds into renewable energy is also a must.
This is also why many oil companies are looking to move towards renewable options. The writing is on the wall, and fossil fuels are chopping block.
That is definitely a step in the right direction. It’s great to see an oil tycoon move away from fossil fuels and try to make advancements in alternative clean energy,
Obviously, the big issue here is the amount of people employed by the oil companies. However, I feel the pros will outweigh the cons especially if the alternative energy industry continues to grow. Our solar company continues to hire as we expand so we hope to see this type of advancement continue into 2021.
Absolutely.