Staying away from energy firms (Image: Photolibrary/Getty)

God is going green – or trying to. Investing in fossil fuels is no longer an option for the World Council of Churches.

Last week the umbrella organisation that represents 345 member churches across 110 nations added fossil fuels to the list of industries it will not financially support for ethical reasons. The WCC hopes members will follow its example.

While the move can be seen as a shift towards greater climate change awareness by the church, the decision alone arguably doesn’t mean much as the WCC has no fossil fuel investments at present. Some of its members do, however.


For example, fossil fuels form the second-largest chunk of the Church of England’s portfolio – with £89 million invested in energy giants Shell and BP.

The church labelled climate change an “urgent ethical issue” in a statement addressing environmental issues released earlier this year.

No easy task

In the statement, the Church of England said an updated investment policy would be published in 2015, but Reverend Richard Burridge, head of its ethical investment board, said that divesting fossil fuels won’t be an easy task. “Carbon emissions remain so embedded in our economic system that the ethical investment policy recommendation will need to be sophisticated.”

Even if the church does decide to pull out, it won’t make much of a dent in the industry, says Bob Ward of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London. “The Church of England’s investments are a very small sum in comparison to how much money companies are committing to searching for new reserves.

“Nevertheless it’s important that that some investors are making decisions based on long-term viewpoints – regardless of whether it’s a matter of risk or ethics,” he says.

Melanie Mattauch of the climate activism group 350.org , which initially publicised the WCC’s decision, is more upbeat. “It’s not the financial impact that’s most important in this case, but that the WCC central committee represents so many churches across the world,” she says. “We think it’s very likely that quite a few churches are going to divest as a result of this decision.”