The Church Commissioners for England, which manages the Church of England's endowment fund, will sell its exposure to Shell and other remaining oil and gas companies over the next few months due to failing efforts to decarbonize their businesses, a spokesman confirmed.
The £10.3 billion ($13 billion) endowment's exposure is less than 1% of its assets.
The commissioners will sell its stakes in companies engaged in the exploration, production and refining of oil or gas by the end of 2023, unless they align with limiting global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
In 2021, the Church Commissioners excluded 20 oil and gas majors from its investment portfolio. It is now also additionally excluding BP, Ecopetrol, Eni, Equinor, Exxon Mobil, Occidental Petroleum, Pemex, Repsol, Sasol, Shell and Total, after concluding these businesses don't align with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
"We have long urged companies to take climate change seriously, and specifically to align with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and pursue efforts to limit the rise in temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. In practical terms that means phasing out fossil fuels, investing in renewables, and plotting a credible path to a net zero world. Some progress has been made, but not nearly enough," Justin Welby, chairman of the Church Commissioners for England, said in a news release Thursday.
