"Church of England votes for oil and gas divestment push", 9 July 2018

The Church of England has [...] flesh[ed] out its fossil fuel divestment plans, confirming it will sell shares in oil and gas firms that fail to develop decarbonisation strategies in line with the Paris Agreement.

The [...] move [...] give[s] oil and gas firms until 2023 to come up with a Paris Agreement-compatible strategy or face divestment by the church...

The plan waters down an original proposal to divest from firms that do not have a credible decarbonisation strategy in place by 2020, but will still crank up investor and public pressure on oil and gas majors to develop and strengthen their emission reduction plans...

This vote puts the oil majors on notice, and strengthens the arm of those pushing the companies to move more quickly to a low carbon future. If oil companies continue to drag their heels, there is nothing to stop the church divesting earlier if they, or Synod, are not satisfied with the speed of change.

The news comes [...] after the Pope again called on businesses and governments to step up efforts to tackle climate change.