From Gabriel Carlyle, St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, UK
You raise questions about the effectiveness of the global fossil fuel divestment movement (5 June, p 40). By making a public commitment to divest from fossil fuels, institutions like universities and pension funds can send a powerful signal to the world’s governments, helping to pave the way for the legislation and international agreements that will be needed if the world is going to rapidly phase out these industries and ensure a just transition. This is a strategy with ample historical precedents.
By contrast, years of “engagement” with fossil fuel companies, the approach favoured in your article, have failed to put a single big oil firm on track to align their emissions with a 2°C pathway by 2050, let alone a 1.5°C one.
