Join us at Constitution Hill in Joburg tomorrow night for the first in a series of public Climate Change Dialogues.
Date: 13th May 2015
Time: Registration from 17h15, Dialogue begins 18h00
Venue: Women’s Gaol, Constitution Hill, Johannesburg
RSVP: adi@350.org
Taking inspiration from the anti-Apartheid struggle, the global fossil fuel divestment movement has opened a new front in the fight against climate change. In just two years the grassroots campaign has spread across the world with 181 institutions and thousands of individuals representing over $51 billion in assets pledging to divest from fossil fuels to date.
To hold future global temperatures rises to an average 2 °Celsius, 80 per cent of all known fossil fuel reserves will need to stay in the ground. Together with the falling cost of solar and renewables and the volatility of oil prices this risks financially ‘stranding’ coal and oil projects, leading major financial institutions including the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund and Bank of America to confirm their intentions to divest.
In South Africa the Fossil Free Africa campaign has called on Nedbank and other banks to fully disclose their coal and oil investments as a first step toward acommitment to stop future investments.
This first dialogue will explore how divestment can play a role in the struggle for climate justice in South Africa and Africa.
About the speakers
May Boeve is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of 350.org, an international climate change campaign. 350.org‘s creative communications, organizing, and mass mobilizations strive to generate the sense of urgency required to tackle the climate crisis. May is part of the team that developed the campaigning approach to fossil fuel divestment.
Dr. Dale T. McKinley is an independent writer, researcher and lecturer as well as a political activist. The holder of a PhD. in Political Economy/African Studies, Dale is the author of two books and has written extensively on South African and international political economy, socio-economic rights/struggles and liberation movement and community politics.
Rashmi Mistry is acting Head of Oxfam’s global GROW campaign, which tackles the root causes of hunger including the impacts of climate change. Prior to this Rashmi led Oxfam’s food and climate change campaign in South Africa.
Ferrial Adam is 350’s Africa & Arab world Regional Team Leader. Ferrial has campaigned for environmental justice for the past 13 years and has worked for Groundwork, Earthlife and Greenpeace Africa. She holds an MPhil in Environmental Management from UCT.