The NZ Super Fund has already divested from cluster munitions manufacture, nuclear weapons and tobacco based on their being extremely harmful and destructive, or dangerous and risky to human life all over the world. It has shown ethical common sense in not investing in industries which are taking lives and leaving lasting impacts on human health and well-being. Looking at them as a ethical benchmark for industries we need to be divested from, it’s clear that the fossil fuel industry as the main driver of climate change should be on the list.
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CLUSTER MUNITIONS

Cluster munitions are a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapons that release or eject smaller sub-munitions. Because cluster bombs release many small bomblets over a wide area they pose risks to civilians both during attacks and afterwards. 98% of cluster bomb victims are civilians and 40% of them are children. 60% of cluster bomb casualties happen while undertaking normal everyday activities.  Many sub-munitions fail to detonate on impact and become de facto antipersonnel mines killing and maiming people long after the conflict has ended

Cluster bombs in Laos alone have caused more than 50,000 victims since 1964. The estimated number of cluster munition victims in 2011 was between 20,000 and 54,000 people (source: Cluster Munition Coalition).

So it is quite understandable that the Super Fund divested from manufacture of cluster bombs in 2008.

TOBACCO  

Tobacco industry is causing nearly 6 million deaths per year – that’s 2 million more than the entire population of New Zealand.  

The Super Fund divested from all tobacco stocks in the Fund’s segregated portfolios in 2007.  As of 31 December 2011 it has excluded 124 stocks for this reason.

NUCLEAR WEAPONS

There were more than 200,000 people killed in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bomb attacks alone, and there is no doubt that nuclear bombs are among one of the deadliestweapons humankind has ever invented. 

According to the UN and other institutions, there are still more than 17 000 nuclear warheads in the world, each able to kill hundreds of thousands of people. 

NZ Super Fund divested from manufacture and testing of nuclear explosives back in 2008.

FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY?

There is no doubt anymore that burning fossil fuels is the main driver of climate change.

Humanitarian organization DARA in its “Climate Vulnerability Monitor” has estimated that climate change will  cause approx. 100 million deaths worldwide by 2030 if the world fails to act on reducing emissions, and the world will miss out on as much as 3.2 percent of its potential economic output annually. It is calculated that five million deaths already occur each year from air pollution, hunger and disease as a result of climate change and carbon-intensive economies, and that toll would likely rise to six million a year by 2030 if current patterns of fossil fuel use continue.

It’s time to add the fossil fuel industry to the list of industries Super Fund has divested from.  

According to the SuperFund: “The… list of excluded companies is regularly reviewed and updated with information from our external screening agencies, peer funds and – from time to time – other stakeholders.” Let them know that your don’t want your retirement money to be invested in something that potentially will take hundreds of thousands of lives and leave a lasting impact on our future. Take 2 minutes and tell them to divest from fossil fuels now.