Örebro, Sweden commits to becoming fossil free city
Örebro is the first Swedish city to completely depart from investing in coal, gas and oil and will be the thirtieth local authority worldwide to follow this movement
Örebro is the first Swedish city to completely depart from investing in coal, gas and oil.
Similar to San Francisco and Oxford as well many other cities, religious and charitable establishments, Örebro unite with the decision to eradicate the usage of fossil fuels in order to create a positive environmental impact.
They will be the thirtieth local authority worldwide to follow this movement.
Other organisations such as The University of Glasgow became the first European University to join the movement as well as a high volume of profile investors in New York, including the Rockefeller Foundation.
Örebro has recently accomplished to reduce their interest in fossil fuel firms by an incredible €1,345,000 (£1,068,366) and will continue to reduce their investment further with the ambition to subsist as a fossil-free city by 2050.
The Mayor of Örebro, Lena Baastad, says “We need to take action on climate change on various levels. Our efforts are more meaningful when we ensure that our financial assets don’t work in the opposite direction.”
However, analysts say that alternative methods of cleaner energy are very limited and therefore are in no competition with the fossil fuel sector. Currently, this is reassuring for fossil fuel firms as concerns about devaluation and a loss of financial assets are eminent, says UK-based Carbon Tracker Initiative.
On the other hand, divestment is an effective method of communicating the trend to other organisations and encouraging them to merge with the new development.
The 350 divestment organiser for Sweden, Olivia Linander challenged other local authorities to imitate the same accomplishments as Örebro.
The Swedish government have made climate change their first priority according to vice Prime Minister Asa Romson.