The Divestment from Fossil Fuels research project analyzes the risk of large public pension funds investing in fossil fuels assets, including public stocks and bonds, public funds, and private equity. The fossil fuel industry includes companies owning coal, oil and gas reserves plus the supply chain that includes companies that refine and market fossil fuel products, provide equipment and services, and fossil fired utilities. The financial risk related to the climate crisis includes declining value of assets with fossil fuels losing market competitiveness; with the rising cost of potential stranded assets; with litigation risk from law suits against the major fossil fuel companies; and with the reputational risk related to the large and rising social costs of carbon emissions.
Research Team
Research team on CalPERS Financial Risk from Fossil Fuel Assets, Spring 2019.Team at work: Sandy Emerson and Janet Cox (Fossil Free California), Lillian Wu, Professor, Sara Jankoska. Not shown: Alexandra de Hemptinne, Shannon Hong.
Research team on CalPERS Financial Risk from Fossil Fuel Assets, Fall 2019.
Team at work: Alix Schoback, Janice Ng, Professor, Robert Dam.
Student Research Team on CalSTRS Network Analysis: Sandy Emerson (Fossil Free CA), Sarah Bancroft, Rebecca Pu, Professor. Not Shown: Ken Kama, Christian Kim.
Working Papers
Clair Brown, Shannon Hong, Alexandra de Hemptinne, Sara Jankoska, Lillian Wu, Sandy Emerson, Janet Cox. Analyzing the Risk of Holding Fossil Fuel Assets in CalPERS Portfolio, May 2019. http://fossilfreeca.org