Can the fund/person/company demand that the fossil fuel company gives them their money back? Basically, how can divestment ultimately work if we’re trying to get *everyone* to divest…?
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> but no one wants to buy them (because it’s…bad)
I’d argue this is a flawed premise. In any large group of humans, there will be plenty of individuals who care a lot for money, and not at all for what’s “bad”.
Say BigOilCo makes $5 billion in profits and has 10 billion shares. $0.50 per share, so if you buy 100 shares, you get $50 in your bank account, every year, Forever [1].
How much would you pay right now to get $50 a year, forever? $200? $1000?
At some point, it becomes ridiculous: For the low low price of $100 right now, you can get $50 a year forever. Still too high? How about $40? You’ll make back your investment in a year. Doesn’t work for you? Let’s try $20…
Eventually the price gets so low, it’s a crazy good deal. How strongly do you feel about the environment? Do you have the moral strength to stand by your principles if it means passing up an opportunity to turn thousands of dollars into millions of dollars? A few million people have the ability to trade stocks, do *all of those people* share your opinions about the evils of fossil fuels, and have that level of inner strength?
The price doesn’t really have to get *that* low for people to be willing to bend. There are plenty of rich folks and large investment funds who don’t give a flying fig about the morality of investing in drilling for oil, and will happily buy oil company shares if their fancy computer models tell them oil companies’ stocks are even slightly underpriced relative to the rest of the market. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.
If you want fossil fuels to go away, technology and infrastructure is the answer. Figure out how to make electric cars or other alternatives better and cheaper. Build better rail networks because trains are the most energy efficient mode of transportation.
[1] Actually, only as long as the company is still in business at its current level of profitability.
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