Fossil Free (vpro backlight documentary)
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A growing group of concerned citizens no longer trusts politicians to tackle climate change. They now focus on the financial sector and receive help from unexpected sources. Big banks like HSBC, Citibank and the regulating Bank of England recently started to warn against the so-called ‘carbon bubble’. Investing in coal, oil and gas not only causes temperatures to rise, but it also involves substantial financial risks, for pensions for example. Armed with this new weapon, activists are summoning pension funds, universities and other funds to reduce their investments in fossil fuels. The trust that politicians will come up with a solution for climate change is waning. A rapidly growing group of concerned citizens is looking for other ways to tackle climate change. They now focus on the financial world, because they believe that there is at least as much influence to be found here as in governments. Pension funds, churches and universities are called on to withdraw their investments in fossil fuels. This ‘divestment’ movement has followers in more than twenty countries, and it’s growing rapidly. With success: besides churches and universities, the Norwegian state investment fund—which holds more than 800 billion euros—has now promised to reduce its investments in fossil fuels. In the Netherlands, pension fund ABP—one of the world’s largest funds, with more than 350 billion euros in investments—is an attractive target for the divestment movement. Through campaigns and conversations with pensioners and supervisors, the fossil free activists are trying to urge ABP to pull large sums out of companies responsible for high carbon emissions. And with success. ABP recently announced that they will start rating all their investments in terms of sustainability. The fund will invest more in renewable energy and less in coal and oil. But for the divestment movement, the mission won't be accomplished until ABP and other pension funds dare to make even more radical choices and completely stop investing in the fossil fuel industry. Is this the right strategy? VPRO Backlight follows activists and stock traders, in search of the benefit and necessity of this new way of campaigning. Including: Corien Wortmann-Kool (CEO ABP), Vatan Hüzeir (co-initiator of ABP Fossil Free), Ella Lagé (campaigner for Fossil Free Berlin) and Bob Litterman (hedge fund manager and former Head of Quantitative Trading at Goldman Sachs). Director: Martijn Kieft VPRO Backlight November 2015 Our globalized world causes societies, economies and cultures to seek a new balance. VPRO Documentaries reflects on this with new features every week. We research subjects like politics, world economy, society and science with experts and try to grasp the essence of prominent trends and developments. So subscribe to our channel and we will be delighted to share our adventures with you! Visit additional youtube channels bij vpro broadcast: vpro Broadcast: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC75PWWQrls0z6fh0loY5I4Q vpro Metropolis: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpnazGScKQfGauk7YNyI21w vpro Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9sXw4ZdPEIp6bYGvLW-_iA vpro World Stories: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJ6GC0klkbFuQa-0ZePqkQ vpro Extra: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTLrhK07g6LP-JtT0VVE56A vpro VG (world music): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-KX3q7zIz7s2rjooBfl6Nw vpro 3voor12 (alternative music): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-p9faJQsBObRNiKY8QF2NQ vpro 3voor12 extra (music stories): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgVYRLGraeL9rGMiM3rBHA
Comments
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based on the timing of the filming, I think it's a coincidence that so many organizations divested during the period of filming. I don't think that most were divesting for society. I think they did it to protect their assets as 2015 was the worst year for oil in decades
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tl;dr Middle East is fucked.
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The lack of foresight with respect to the banker's intentions is very disappointing. Oil is the life blood of the economy and it will remain that way for some time, so with the price of these assets falling, these investment bankers will start purchasing fossil fuel companies again, making a tidy margin and getting a higher return on their investment.
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Thank you for this great piece of journalism :)
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You can sing in your circle all you want. We're not going anywhere.
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Ellah from fossil free Berlin wants other companies to not invest in fossil fuels as she feeds her kids fried chicken carcass and ice cream. Does she not know the water, land and carbon footprint of a dairy cow? Does she not know the land, water, and fossil demand of raising chickens for slaughter? Why does she invest in fossil fuels while working against others who do mainly from demand from people like her?
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51%of climate change is due to raising animals, animal eat most of the crop, drink most of the world's water and eat more fish that human and yes u heard that right😡 so let's look into a vegan or a plant based diet🍒🍑🍉 u cannot be a true environmentalist and support animal agricultural, we have proved we never needed meat and most of our meats are hybrids that's why they are call domesticated animal because we brought them into existence. and yes better technology like solar , free energy technology, water and electric cars and more❤
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they need to address the animals agriculture
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And the carbon tax is a left-plot. The money they collect is going where? For what purpose? And, who is benefiting?
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Go ahead and withdraw your investments in fossil fuel industries; buying opportunity for me.
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yeah i think the climate change ban wagon left along time ago.
Even if it is happening and we are causing it. it has almost no impact on us.
Look markets adjust to things, sea level rise then the housing prices go down or the cost of living goes up.
You get more floods or droughts insurance goes up making it less affordable to live there and people move.
What i would be more concerned about i air pollution we need some market solution to clean them. -
Someone enlighten me as to what the point of all of this actually is. Every damn thing that is made today is made mostly with oil, windmills don't make other windmills,nor do they maintain themselves, spare parts are not made by the energy generated by the windmills,they are made with oil. Cars even if you go full electric, how will you replace the material that cars are made of? How will you replace the hundreds of millions of cars that are in circulation today? With better ones,more efficient ones and ones that don't rely on heavy industry for components you know like tires for example? there are a lot of moving parts in pretty much everything that we use today, it's mostly oil but it's also gas and coal. How about the food that we eat? We keep complaining about how each of us should recycle this and that, how about the meat? Do you know the figures? You know that even at your optimum you can't even make a single dent in the industry,in how things are done today, even if from today not one of us on the entire planet would use water to drink,to shower to do anything but would keep on eating meat we would use more than if from tomorrow everyone would leave their water tap on full blast 24/7. How about the toothpaste that you use or the toothbrush? Or the laptop or phone or pc that you are typing from? How about the bed you are sleeping on? All of these things rely in one way or another on fossil fuels. It's not just about the jobs, jobs can be created if you have a creative country full of creative minds. Nuclear energy is also extremely demanding, how do you thing it gets built? It does not magically appear from nothing, heavy industry has to work and has to put a lot of energy in building the reactor,maintaining it and what about the radiation,what about the risks what about where we deposit all of that toxic waste? Almost every documentary or attempt of a documentary I see,somehow circles around the problem or attacks just a small part of it. I simply fail to see the point of trying to patch things up,it's like somehow putting some duck tape over the Hindenburg and trying to assure me that it won't burn. It is all coming to an end, it will be here soon and I see no proper solution presented to the problem by anyone, by any individual,or group of people or some think tank or some country anywhere on the Planet. Everyone presents small patches of solutions that make some fixing here and there and offer minor solutions but in the broad picture make almost no difference.
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Just as many scientists are claiming global warming and climate change due to human use of fossil fuel, there are just as many eminent scientists who will say this is all a scam and scare. One thing for sure is that for million of years, there has been and always will be climate changes.
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give you my pension lmfao im not even goin to get it. get you head out of the clouds and stop the banks. . and stop crying
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they should start fight global warming by not using cars, electricity & modern toilets; and also by eating grass from parks ...
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As long as you invest in clean, alternative energy...it doesn't even matter if your pension might end up being less 'money'...you will more than make up for that on the energy that will keep you warm in winter and could even be 'free' .....and that could never happen with fossil fuels because that's a finite resource and can only escalate in price as it gets ever more scarce in the future.
48m 30sLenght
136Rating