Inner West mayor calls on City of Sydney to divest in fossil fuels
An inner city council known for their ‘green’ policymaking has become the first in NSW to totally divest in fossil fuels, calling on other councils to do the same.
Inner West
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The Inner West mayor has challenged the City of Sydney council to move away from fossil fuel investments, after the Innner West Council became the first in NSW to totally divest.
“The City of Sydney is at about 36 per cent divestment from fossil fuels so in the spirit of healthy and friendly competition I’d like to challenge Clover and the team to lift their standards to the inner wests’ commitment to environmentalism,” mayor Darcy Byrne said.
It required council moving money away from the four big banks, and into smaller banks such as Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Suncorp Bank and Members Equity Bank.
With the NSW Treasury Corporation, TCorp, a new ‘Green Term Deposit’ was developed.
$10m has now been invested into the TCorp Green Term Deposit pilot program.
“(It means) not just us but other councils in the future will be able to be divested in fossil fuels,” Cr Byrne said.
Labor Cr Mark Drury said this is ‘a movement’.
“I’d like to see more councils take this step,” he said.
“If councils do it, corporations do it, we actually start a movement to starve the industries, that are killing our climate, of funds. And that will make a difference.”
“(This is a) substantial structural change we will be at the forefront of bringing down.”
“When it was first proposed, we were told it was financially irresponsible. That banks and corporations would never come to the party, that we would get a lesser return on investments and a number of other fear and loathings were put forward as opposition,” Cr Drury said.
Inner West Council has a $238.3m portfolio.
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