Divest from Fossil Fuels

Context

Divestment from fossil fuels and implementing socially responsible investment (SRI) are important because they are ways for the City of Portland to support its climate and equity goals through the investments it makes. Investments in corporations that are causing climate change, environmental injustice, and human rights abuses support these harmful practices; instead, the City’s money should encourage a just transition to a sustainable future for people and the planet. Disclosing the corporations and industries that constituents’ money is being invested in allows the City to make more informed decisions and receive input from the community.

Portland used to have a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) Committee, charged with making recommendations about corporate investments to avoid, based on a council-approved list of social and values concerns. This committee was disbanded in 2017, when the City Council said they would avoid the issues of SRI altogether by not investing in corporate securities. In 2019–2021, the City annually adopted a short list of corporate securities that were the only allowable corporate investments.

In December 2021, the City Council decided to again invest in corporate securities, but with a list of prohibited industries (Resolution 37558). Though this list disallows investment in some forms of oil, the list still allows for investment in coal and fracked “natural” gas, and does not screen for human rights abuses or poor labor standards.

Actions

1. Commit to socially responsible investing (SRI).
   1. City council is to ensure that money invested is done so responsibly, into industries and organizations that are beneficial, and not into industries and organizations that are detrimental to the community and the environment.
   2. SRI includes screening for and removing harmful investments in areas such as: fossil fuels, labor practices, human rights abuses, and other business models or products that harm people and ecosystems.
2. Expand the list of prohibited investments to include all fossil fuels.
   1. Prohibit investment in thermal coal by excluding companies on the Urgewald Global Coal Exit List, as is suggested in House Bill 4083, which went into Oregon state law in 2024 for the Oregon State Treasury’s retirement portfolio.
   2. Prohibit investment in companies producing natural gas.
   3. Prohibit investment in arms production and military service, expanding the current prohibition on small arms to adopt a weapons-free fund.
   4. Develop or adopt a screen to exclude investments in companies with poor labor standards and/or human rights abuses. 
   5. Portland City Council could adopt an “ethical investment statement” similar to that adopted by the City of Olympia on March 25, 2026 in its “City of Olympia Investment Policy 2026” (p. 11):
      
      “The City will refrain from investment in companies with primary business functions in harmful industries such as tobacco, fossil fuels, mass incarceration or immigrant detention, and weaponry of any kind, or in companies with a consistent record of direct involvement in severe human rights violations such as slavery and prison labor, war crimes, illegal military occupation, racial segregation, or apartheid.
      
      “Adopt a fossil fuel free index, socially responsible investment index, and weapons free index so funds are being invested in ways that are beneficial to human and other life (i.e. clean energy and other climate solutions, companies with strong human rights and labor standards, fossil fuel free indexes).”

Case Studies

“Berkeley’s ESG Investing Initiative.” City of Berkeley Investment Policy. July 1, 2024, p. 20.

“Divest/Invest.” New York City Mayor’s Office of Climate & Environmental Justice.

Divest Oregon. https://www.divestoregon.org/.

Figueira, Joana Costa. “12 major cities commit to divest from fossil fuel companies.” Climate Action News. September 25, 2020.

Citations

“Adopt City of Portland Investment Policy Exhibit a-1.” City of Portland.

• See the previous list of specific companies that were not allowed, Appendix “A,” page 10

“Adopt City of Portland Investment Policy Exhibit a-2.” City of Portland.

• See list of prohibited industry classifications in Appendix “A,” page 10

“Divesting from Fossil Fuels, Investing in Our Future: A Toolkit for Cities.” C40 Knowledge Hub.

Floum, Jessica. “Portland to stop corporate investing despite Mayor Ted Wheeler’s opposition.” The Oregonian. April 6, 2017.

“HB 4083: COAL Act.” Oregon Legislature. 2024. 

“Investment Policies and Report Summaries.” Treasury. City of Portland. 

“Investment Policy 2026.” City of Olympia.

Polishuk, Sandy. “Background on the Portland Socially Responsible Investment Committee.” 350PDX. April 19, 2024.

“Resolution 37558: Adopt City of Portland Investment Policy.” City of Portland. December 22, 2021.

Tenney, Sean. “Should Portland Invest in Coal and Nuclear Weapons?” Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility. December 21, 2021.