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| © Jessica Rinaldi / Reuters |
The Rockefeller Family
Fund is cashing in all of its investments in ExxonMobil, citing “morally
reprehensible conduct.” The multimillion dollar charity is also divesting itself
from all fossil fuel companies over the industry’s stance on climate change.
RT
USA report continues:
“We
would be remiss if we failed to focus on what we believe to be the morally
reprehensible conduct on the part of ExxonMobil,” the family fund wrote in its announcement.
Set
up in 1967 by descendants of John D. Rockefeller, the charity has long invested
its funds in the oil industry up until now.
“These
are not decisions, therefore, that have been taken lightly or without much
consideration of their import,” the fund wrote after reviewing its investment
strategies.
The
decision stems from a particular case involving ExxonMobil’s controversial
decades-old research on fossil fuels and climate change.
“Evidence
appears to suggest that the company worked since the 1980s to confuse the
public about climate change’s march, while simultaneously spending millions to
fortify its own infrastructure against climate change’s destructive consequences
and track new exploration opportunities as the Arctic’s ice receded,” the
Rockefeller family wrote.
In
November of 2015, the state of New York launched an investigation into whether
the largest US gas and oil company had misled the public and investors about
the risks of climate change. A similar inquiry has been opened in
California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The
decision of Rockefeller Family Fund did not come as a surprise at ExxonMobil.
“It’s
not surprising that they’re divesting,” the company told CNBC.
“The Rockefeller Family Fund provided financial support to InsideClimate News
and Columbia University Journalism School which produced inaccurate and
deliberately misleading stories about ExxonMobil’s history of climate
research.”
The
Fund also announced that it was going to eliminate holdings in all other all
coal and tar sands-based companies “as quickly as possible.”
“Indeed, it is past time
for all people of good will to do everything in their collective power to make
our new path one that recognizes the deep interdependence between humanity’s
future and the health of our natural systems,” the Rockefeller Family Fund
said.
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