Divestment: A Financial Argument

Investment is a long-term commitment, but fossil fuels are in limited supply. This makes it an economically irresponsible investment and violates fiduciary responsibility.

• Strict regulatory controls from the EPA have forced the demand for coal to go down, negatively affecting power stations and mining companies.

• If more than 20 percent of all fossil fuel reserves are burned, the costs of repairing the resulting global damage will enormously exceed the benefit of funding fossil fuel companies.

• If the government takes action to keep 80 percent of fossil fuels in the ground, fossil fuel investments will becomes worthless, creating stranded assets.

• Although it is unclear how much Notre Dame invests in fossil fuels, the worst-case scenario (for removing investments from the top 200 fossil fuel companies) would likely decreases the endowment by 0.075 percent. And, if the University were todivest from the top “Filthy 15” fossil fuel companies, there would be only a 0.0002 percent decrease. This translates to $19,600 from a 9.8 billion dollar endowment.

Sharlo Bayless

sophomore

Walsh Hall

Feb. 12

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