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By Sarah Shearman
LONDON, July 4 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Britain'sNational Trust will sell all of its investments in the fossilfuel industry by 2022, the conservation charity announced onThursday.
The charity invests 45 million pounds ($56.61 million) infossil fuel companies - 4% of its one billion pound stock marketportfolio - despite having itself warned of the dangers ofclimate change.
But it will aim to offload the majority of investments inoil and gas companies, which include Shell, BP and Total, within12 months, chief financial officer Peter Vermeulen told theThomson Reuters Foundation by phone.
It will instead favour green startups and other companiesthat deliver positive environmental outcomes.
The National Trust's stock market fund is an importantsource of revenue for the charity, which looks after coastlines,land and historic properties across Britain.
Vermeulen said not enough progress had been made by oil andgas companies to transition to a low carbon economy since the2015 Paris climate agreement.
"Oil and gas companies have been insufficient in actuallychanging their business models to a low carbon economy," hesaid.
"So as a conservation charity we have called time on thatand said we are not going to invest in those companies anymore."
The move comes after British charities and faith groupsasked the government in March for legal guidance on investing incompanies that contribute to climate change.
Both the National Trust and the Church of England were namedin the open letter to the government.
Shareholder activism, where financial backers and boardmembers push the companies they invest in to make ethicalchanges, is growing in prominence.
BP, for example, faced pressure from shareholder groups toset tougher targets to combat climate change at its annualmeeting in May.
Shareholder action, however, has yet to lead oil and gascompanies to "materially change their behaviour and investvastly more than 10% of their capital investment into low carbontechnologies," Vermeulen said.
"This was part of ... making sure that in all of our actionsas a conservation charity we are looking after and caring fornature, beauty and history," he said.
The charity currently invests 4.7 million pounds incompanies that advance wind technology, energy storage and waterefficiency, about 10% of its investments in the oil and gasindustry.
($1 = 0.7950 pounds)(Reporting by Sarah Shearman @Shearmans, Editing by Tom Finn.Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable armof Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's andLGBT+ rights, human trafficking and slavery, property rights,social innovation, resilience and climate change. Visit http://news.trust.orgto see more stories)
