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Highlights from the Guardian Sustainable Business debate on divestment.

We can't divest from fossil fuels unless you tell us, says UK's largest pension assets manager

This article is more than 8 years old

Watch highlights from the Guardian Live debate on fossil fuel divestment, with panel guests including Legal and General’s Meryam Omi

The Guardian’s keep it in the ground campaign has been calling for individuals and major investors to pull out their money from fossil fuel companies.

But is that a viable strategy on its own? Is there evidence that engagement rather than divestment would work better? And will the business and investor community lend their support?

This and other issues were discussed at a Guardian Live debate on divestment, chaired by the Guardian’s editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger in his last week as editor.

On the panel was Nick Stern, influential economist and president of the British Academy; Meryam Omi, Legal & General investment management; Steve Howard, head of sustainability at Ikea; Dale Vince, founder of Ecotricity; Lisa Ashford, CEO of Ethex; and David Blood, co-founder of Generation Investment Management.

Speaking at the debate, Omi said it was up to individual investors to start lobbying pension fund providers, “we literally can’t divest for you unless you tell us to”.

A selection of reaction from guests at the Guardian Sustainable Business debate on divestment

She also said it was important for any divestment strategy to be followed by investment in low-carbon alternatives.

Stern and Blood were both outspoken in their criticism of Shell and what they saw as its lack of faith in renewables and the likelihood of climate policy to limit global warming to no more than 2C, with Stern calling it a “bet against the world”.

“We have to try to show them that they are wrong and that we can get the world’s people to insist that we must follow those policies. We must try to build pressure to try to make that 2C assumption correct and the forecast of the energy companies wrong,” he said.

Vince went further and suggested a divestment strategy could not work while we still consume fossil fuels. “Alongside a divestment campaign we need a boycott campaign, we all need to stop buying fossil fuels and it’s actually a lot easier than its ever been. We can all buy green electricity and gas now.”

After the event, Guardian members gave their thoughts, with member Justin Fisher saying he saw a “buzz of excitement” around divestment now because of the power it gave people to take action. While welcoming the strong rational arguments presented by the panel guests, another member David Cross cautioned that the moral and ethical argument on divestment had not yet been won.

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