Educators Call on The Chicago Teachers Pension Fund to Divest from Fossil Fuels 

The most recent report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes it clearer than ever before that climate change is real, it is happening very quickly, it is caused by the human consumption of fossil fuels, it is the greatest threat our species has ever faced and we have very little time left to do something about it.

“Today’s IPCC Working Group 1 Report is a CODE RED FOR HUMANITY… The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk… This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels before they destroy our planet.” - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

We, the undersigned members (contributors and beneficiaries) of the Chicago Teachers Pension Fund, call on the Fund and it’s Board to immediately address the urgent, existential challenge of climate change and our own role in contributing to the problem by:

• Engaging a qualified consultant, independent of the fossil fuel industry, to review our investment portfolios in the fossil fuels industry, including thermal coal companies, for divestiture from fossil fuel companies that contribute substantially to climate change.
• Instructing portfolio managers, upon completion of the review, to divest from funds that provide finances to fossil fuel industries and find or establish funds free from fossil fuels.
• Supporting investments that enable governments to convert existing municipal buildings, schools and public facilities to renewable energy and require the powering of construction with renewable energy sources.

The New York City public employee pension fund is already divesting from fossil fuels. The time is ripe for Chicago to do the same! 

As educators, our most sacred charge is the investment we are called to make in the future generations we nurture. Let us give our students a chance to live and thrive in a world without climate catastrophe. Let us divest in fossil fuels before it is too late!