How investors can fight greenwashing
Our latest article on News 24 touches on the need to build a collective investment movement that secures, rather than destroys our future. Plus some other campaign updates.
Hello FFSA friends and supporters,
Our latest op-ed in News 24, co-authored by myself and Ashley Daswa – a senior investment professional at Sanlam – has had me reflecting! I invite you to read that reflection below, as well as some updates on our other campaigns further on.
Making the fossil fuel finance conversation more accessible
There are key moments in my life that I believe strongly politicised and conscientised me into becoming the organiser/campaigner/artist I am today.
One of them was when I ran a communications campaign for Fossil Free SA in 2018 that profiled activists and people living in coal-affected communities in South Africa. This exercise made the link between coal, colonialism, capitalism, inequality and corruption incredibly clear to me. It was a pivotal part of my decision to shift from sustainability communicator to grassroots organiser and campaigner.
As you may have realised, a few months ago I returned to work with FFSA as a part-time campaigner. Part of my role is challenging the financial support of fossil fuel companies (for example, through our #InvestFossilFree campaign) which too comes from the investments of institutions and citizens in South Africa.
In all honesty, I am not the most financially savvy person and it’s taken me years to get to a level of understanding in the climate justice space that still needs constant learning. So I’m aware how inaccessible (or boring) conversations around fossil fuel finance can be.
And yet finance underpins the support of fossil fuel companies who are putting profit ahead of a safe and liveable planet for all people. That makes it an essential discussion towards achieving a better present and future.
The article I wrote, together with Ashley Daswa, is one attempt at starting to make this conversation more accessible. We touch on the different things investors (people with any degree of investment) can do to start investing in the kind of future we want.
The fact that you are signed up to this mailing list means you are passionate about this work just as I am! So I would love to get feedback with how this piece lands with you or people in your life who may be new to this discussion.
Until next time,
Sarah, on behalf of the FFSA team
The divest-reinvest dispatch
Bite-sized updates on our most recent work
We’ve been very busy behind the scenes working on our #InvestFossilFree campaign, and have secured a meeting with Old Mutual following our review of their Responsible Investment Report.
Our Fossil Ad Ban campaign continues to call out greenwashing in SA with an Op-Ed by campaigner James Granelli, published in the Daily Maverick. The piece questions the deal between SANParks, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment, and one of the world's largest polluters and historic climate denier, TotalEnergies. TotalEnergies were the headline sponsor of the recent SANParks week, in which its brand was placed on images of South Africa's rich biodiversity. A hypocrisy of note considering TotalEnergies wish to build the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) which would destroy national parks in Uganda and Tanzania, their plans to explore for oil on the SA coast, and the impacts that climate change is already having on the fauna, flora and infrastructure in our National Parks. Â
Our Clean Creatives South Africa campaign recently released the first local edition of the F-list, a list of the advertising and PR agencies working for fossil fuels in South Africa. The report lists 41 agencies and 53 contracts. The report has been covered widely in the media and is forcing advertising executives to consider whether keeping their fossil fuel clients is worth the increasing reputational and legal risks of greenwashing. Read the full report at cleancreatives.org/southafrica
For all of you who continue to support our work, we are very grateful. If you have the means, please consider donating. Even very small monthly contributions are greatly appreciated.