We have rescheduled this meeting for Monday, November 29, 2021 at 8pm Eastern / 7pm Central / 6pm Mountain / 5pm Pacific, and we are grateful to have found a time to make gathering more accessible for attendees. If you would like to be included on the Zoom invitation for the meeting, please contact Andrew McGeorge at amcgeorge@uua.org.
The UUA’s Investment Committee and Socially Responsible Investing Committee invite all interested UUs to a discussion on the 2021 General Assembly Responsive Resolution, Creating a More Just Future Through Divesting from Pipelines and Investing in Young People. This resolution was offered in response to the UUA Administration’s Report on the 2020 Business Resolution, Embodying Human Rights in Our Investment Decisions.
Building on discussion of the Responsive Resolution at our September quarterly call with investors and social justice leaders, the committees plan to report further on their actions and decisions since receiving the Responsive Resolution.
As context, the UUCEF divested from corporations that extract fossil fuels pursuant to the 2014 Business Resolution and is not investing in fossil fuel pipelines (having sold bonds issued by Enbridge Inc. in the UUCEF’s separately managed accounts earlier this year following dialogue with UU environmental justice and human rights advocates).
Climate change remains a very high-priority topic for UUA shareholder advocacy and engagement, with a particular focus in 2021-2022 on just transition and environmental justice. In this work, we are informed by research we commission from Sustainalytics and publicly available data—such as a recent report from Rainforest Action Network. We plan to collaborate with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and other investors to increase the pressure on publicly listed banks to shift finance away from fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure and toward renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The committees also wish to hold space for further engagement with UU social justice groups, congregations, and individual UUs concerned about social justice on theories of change and how we can best partner to advance the long-term objectives put forth in the resolutions. We are also committed to invite Young Adult voices into the process of revising the UUCEF’s Socially Responsible Investing Guidelines.