Australia is a small country by many standards. But as the world’s single largest exporter of coal — in the minds of those who are tackling dangerous global climate change — Australia is a superpower. That’s why it makes perfect sense that the Australian Environmental Grantmakers Network (AEGN) has produced the DivestInvest Philanthropy Guide, a unique step by step governance and implementation tool about divestment designed for trustees, managers and investment committees. Co-author of the Guide, Lou O’Halloran, reflects on divestment as a high impact tool for getting results, and the burgeoning power of the corpus to leverage change.

Philanthropy has played a massive leadership role in the divestment movement. 688 institutions with $5.2 trillion in funds under management are now pledged to divest — 23 percent of those signatories are foundations.

By participating they have gained in two important ways. Firstly, they have added their influence (e.g. Rockefeller Brothers Fund) to a public movement that has prompted whole new levels of financial analysis into the coal, oil and gas sectors leading to a material, upstream impact on the allocation of capital away from fossil fuels and toward the green economy. And secondly, they have reduced the carbon risk exposure of their portfolio investments.

Read the full article about divestment in philanthropy by Lou O’Halloran from Philanthropy in Focus.