This is unprecedented. The Rockefeller Family Fund has announced this Wednesday that it will withdraw its investments and assets from the companies of fossil fuels “as fast as possible”.
In addition, they announced that they will remove the capital that until now they kept in the oil company Exxon Mobil Corp., arguing that the company has cheated to the public about the risks of climate change.
Although the percentage of assets invested in fossil fuels is only a small part of the fund, the Rockefeller’s announcement is significant, as a century ago John D. Rockefeller amassed a great fortune with Standard Oil, predecessor of Exxon Mobil.
The group has also announced that it would divest its investments in coal and oil sands located in Canada, according to Reuters reports.
The end of fossil fuels?
The Rockefeller Fund released the following statement on its website:
Given the threat it poses to the survival of human and natural ecosystems, there is no sensible reason for companies to continue exploring new sources of oil. ”
The group also noted that Exxon’s actions regarding the climatic issues it is “morally reprehensible.”
During 2014, another group related to this family, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, which has $ 860 million, announced that, along with 11 other companies, they decided to abandon investments in coal and oil sands.
Many media report that these actions taken by the Rockefeller Foundation They could mean the beginning of the end of an era, the era of fossil fuels, to make way for free energy, increasingly used in recent years.
