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A CEREMONIAL RESOLUTION
21-225
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
June 7, 2016
To recognize the District of Columbia Retirement Board for its actions to divest the District’s
pension funds from direct investment in fossil fuel companies.
WHEREAS, the substantial risks of climate change remain an important concern and immediate threat to current and future generations of Washingtonians;
WHEREAS, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report found that climate change is already causing costly disruptions of human and natural systems throughout the world, including health hazards, elevated ocean acidity, flooding, and drought;
WHEREAS, the extraction of fossil fuels, such as coal mining, oil drilling, and hydrological fracturing, and the transportation of fossil fuels through pipelines and over rail has many negative environmental, public health, and ecological impacts;
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia has a adopted a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2032 and 80% by 2050, and plans to undertake climate adaptation measures to make the city resilient to future climate change;
WHEREAS, almost every government in the world has agreed, through the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, to hold the increase in global average temperature to below 2ºC (3.6ºF) and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels;
WHEREAS, fossil fuel companies possess fossil fuel reserves that would release approximately 2,795 gigatons of CO2 if they are burned, which is 5 times the amount that can be released without exceeding 2ºC of warming, as reported by the Carbon Tracker Initiative’s “Unburnable Carbon” report;
WHEREAS, in November 2013, the District of Columbia Retirement Board adopted an Environmental, Social , and Governance (“ESG”) Policy for the purpose of achieving certain environmental (climate change, industrial waste, sustainability), social (diversity, human rights, animal rights), and governance (management structure, employee relations) goals;
WHEREAS, in December 2014, the Council of the District of Columbia approved a resolution urging the District of Columbia Retirement Board and the Other Post-Employment Benefits Fund to explore all means possible for minimizing the District’s involvement with companies with the largest fossil fuel reserves;
WHEREAS, the District of Columbia has set precedent in the divestment movement by previously divesting from apartheid South Africa, state-sponsored terrorism in Iran, and genocide in Sudan;
WHEREAS, by Fiscal Year 2016, the District of Columbia Retirement Board analyzed its investments and, prompted by its ESG guidelines and in accordance with its fiduciary obligations, removed all of its direct investments in fossil fuel companies from the District of Columbia’s retirement funds; and
WHEREAS, because of these efforts, the District of Columbia’s public pension funds are currently free of any direct investments in fossil fuel companies.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this resolution may be cited as the “Fossil Fuel Divestment Recognition Resolution of 2016”.
Sec. 2. The Council of the District of Columbia acknowledges and applauds the District of Columbia Retirement Board for its leadership and efforts to fully divest from fossil fuel companies and urges this practice to continue indefinitely.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia shall transmit a copy of this resolution, upon its adoption, to the District of Columbia Retirement Board.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon the first date of publication in the District of Columbia Register.
