Passed 4/1/2013
WHEREAS, the scientific consensus worldwide is that any warming above a 2°C (3.6°F) rise would be unsafe; and we have already raised the temperature 0.8°C (1.4F), and that has caused far more damage than most scientists expected – a third of summer sea ice in the Arctic is gone, the oceans are 30 percent more acidic, and, since warm air holds more water vapor than cold, the climate has produced both devastating floods and drought; and
WHEREAS, scientists estimate that humans can release roughly 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and still have some reasonable hope of staying below two degrees, while proven coal, oil, and gas reserves equal about 2,795 gigatons of CO2, or five times the amount we can release to maintain 2 degrees of warming; and
WHEREAS, California’s institutions of higher education and pension funds should encourage only those investments that allow students and retirees to live healthy lives without the impact of a warming planet, and campaigns to divest from fossil fuels have already begun at campuses within both the University of California and California State University systems;
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley calls upon the University of California and California State University endowments, CALPERS, CALSTRS, and Los Angeles City and County retirement to immediately stop new investments in fossil fuel companies within five years, to take steps to divest all holdings from the top 200 fossil fuel companies, as determined by the Carbon Tracker list, and to release updates available to the public, detailing progress made toward full divestment;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley send a copy of this resolution to the Governor of the State of California, Board of Regents of the University of California, Chancellor of the California State University system, CALPERS, CALSTRS, Mayor of Los Angeles, Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.