A divestment campaign is an effective way to apply economic pressure on an industry or state that is profiting from injustice and destruction. The idea is that stock sell-offs, cancelled contracts, and the like will scare off potential investors and create enough economic pressure to compel the target to comply with your demands. A divestment campaign helps to politically isolate the target and limit its ability to act with impunity.

The tactic became prominent in the 1980s, when it was used to bring concentrated economic pressure on the government of South Africa, helping to force it to abolish its racist policy and crime of apartheid. The tactic has most recently been taken up by Palestine solidarity activists and by the global climate justice movement. Both campaigns have shed light on the power and versatility of a divestment strategy.

There is uncertainty about whether fossil fuel projects in Canada – new oil and gas developments in particular, but perhaps even existing oil sands projects – can make financial sense even under recent long-term trends, let alone under thereduced demand for oil and gas that a serious response to climate change would bring.

In short, on financial metrics alone, new oil and gas production is a risky bet for Canadian investors and the governments that subsidize them. When one factors in climate change, the case for any increase in total Canadian oil or gas production becomes tenuous, at best.

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The Wet’suwet’en have re-asserted their land use, occupancy, hereditary governance system, and remain the title holders with the authority and jurisdiction to control the unceded lands where the pipeline is currently being built. The project contravenes ‘Anic ‘niwh’it’én (Wet’suwet’en), federal, and international laws, yet TC Energy and Coastal GasLink have refused to withdraw.

Coastal GasLink violates free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC), as protected in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), and which Canada adopted at both federal and provincial levels. Even the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has called on the Canadian government to “immediately halt the construction and suspend all permits and approvals for the construction of the Coastal GasLink pipeline in the traditional and unceded lands and territories of the Wet’suwet’en people, until they grant their free, prior and informed consent, following the full and adequate discharge of the duty to consult.”

Between January 2019 and August 2021, the RCMP spent nearly CAD $20 million policing Wet’suwet’en territory. That includes the costs of two police raids in January 2019 and February 2020, where militarized police illegally evicted Indigenous elders, youth, and land defenders by using assault rifles, snipers, dogs, sound cannons, and helicopters.

Both hereditary chiefs and community members maintain the right to oppose the pipeline and all aspects of its construction. These rights must be respected.

Coastal GasLink is slated to carry fracked gas across the province to LNG Canada, a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility on the coast in Kitimat, British Columbia. The $40 billion project represents the largest private-sector investment in Canadian history, and if operational, the first phase of LNG Canada would export up to 14 million metric tons a year of fracked gas in liquid form to Asia.

Back in October 2018, LNG Canada made a final investment decision and formed a joint venture with five major oil and gas companies in Europe and Asia. LNG Canada’s ongoing construction is being funded by these five companies:

• Royal Dutch Shell, the oil and gas giant based in the Netherlands, owns 40% of the project.

• The Malaysian state oil and gas company PETRONAS has a 25% share.

• Petrochina Company Limited – a Chinese state-owned company and Asia’s largest oil and gas producer – has a 15% stake.

• Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation, a massive conglomerate that spans ten business areas including oil and gas, also has a 15% stake.

• The Korea Gas Corporation (KOGAS), one of the largest LNG-importing companies in the world, owns the last 5%.
  

Divestment focuses on one secondary target at a time in order to increase pressure and build public anger against the primary target so that it becomes isolated and eventually has no choice but to comply.

The global climate justice movement has chosen to target the fossil fuel industry, identifying it as the main obstacle blocking serious action on climate change. The 2015 climate talks in Paris saw 500 institutions commit to divest their capital from fossil fuel companies, while many students have launched campaigns pressuring the universities they attend to divest. So far, the movement has won pledges to divest $3.4 trillion — a sign that the tide of public opinion is turning against the fossil fuel industry.

Here are some recent examples of success ful divestment from fossil fuels campaigns:

• The BC Teachers Federation (BCTF) resolved to divest our pension from all oil and gas companies.

• The University of Victoria announced that it planned to fully divest one of its two primary investment funds — a $256-million working capital fund managed by its board of governors — from fossil fuels.

The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is the largest investor in the Coastal GasLink pipeline, leading a group of 27 banks to cover 80% of the pipelines construction costs.

Here’s the full list of banks backing Coastal GasLink, organized by country:

• Australia: National Australia Bank

• Canada: ATB Financial, Bank of Montreal, Bank of Nova Scotia, Canadian Western Bank, CIBC, Export Development Canada, National Bank of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, TD

• China: Bank of China, China Construction Bank, ICBC

• Germany: KfW IPEX-Bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg

• Japan: Mizuho, MUFG, SMFG, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank

• Singapore: United Overseas Bank

• South Korea: Kookmin Bank

• Spain: Kookmin Bank

• USA: Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Raymond James, Truist Securities (formerly SunTrust Robinson Humphrey)
  

TC energy, original owner of the Coastal GasLink pipeline, sold 65% of the project to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR) and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo).

Here is an overview of each shareholder:

• TC ENERGY: (formerly TransCanada), is a major North American fossil fuel infrastructure company — and promoter of the now-dead Keystone XL pipeline.

• KKR: is a global investment firm headquartered in NYC, with USD $429 billion in assets under management as of June 2021.

• AIMCo: manages USD $118 billion in assets on behalf of 32 Alberta pension, endowment, and government funds. It is a Crown corporation, which in this case means that it is owned by the government of Alberta.

Liberty Mutual provided the bulk of the insurance for TC Energy’s five major gas pipelines, with AEGIS and Energy Insurance Mutual providing additional coverage. It is highly likely that these are the companies who might insure the Coastal GasLink pipeline should it become operational.

Liberty Mutual is already a top target for the movement calling on the insurance industry to stop fueling the climate crisis and respect human rights. The Boston-based insurance giant is one of the biggest oil and gas insurers globally and has been linked to the Trans Mountain tar sands pipeline and other fossil fuel expansion projects in North America, Asia, and Australia.

While the intensifying floods, fires, deadly heat and pollution caused by the climate crisis endanger the
health and safety of communities around the world, this report from Stand.earth, with research by Profundo, reveals how the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) continues to bankroll the fuel for the fire.

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Adopt-an RBC campaign demands that RBC divest from the Coastal GasLink pipeline and respect Indigenous peoples' sovereignty and rights. Groups are going to RBC branches regularly and speaking with customers and employees in order to pressure RBC from within.

Actions are non-violent and completely legal. We are committed to following the guidance of front-line Land Defenders and to long-term solidarity action. Everyone who respects these principles is welcome!

RBC Revealed is a distributed campaign organized by NGOs, Indigenous groups, shareholder activists, and grassroots social movements working together to stop the biggest funders of climate chaos.

Partners towards divestment for Coastal GasLink include:

• Indigenous Climate Action has been at the forefront of contemporary Indigenous-led and climate justice divestment campaigns since 2009.

• Stand.earth is a team of strategists, researchers, communicators, policy and issue experts demanding demand for transformational change.

• OVERBUDGET: TC Energy had to provide $3.3 billion in additional temporary bridge financing to cover ballooning project costs.

• CLIMATE CRISIS: An invisible climate killer is lurking behind B.C.’s LNG boom.

• VIOLATION OF INDIGENOUS RIGHTS: The complicated truth about pipelines crossing Wet’suwet’en territory.

• IMPACTS ON WILD SALMON: Feds fail to disclose Coastal GasLink data on salmon eggs and habitat.

• ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT: Coastal GasLink accused of failing to prevent sediment from entering a Wet’suwet’en river.

• REPRESSED MEDIA: Attacks on Canadian media reveal cracks in democracy.

• COLLUSION WITH THE RCMP: Letters reveal what energy companies told RCMP before a Wet’suwet’en raid.

• ENORMOUS POLICING COSTS: Documents Reveal ‘Rural Policing’ Money Is Going to the C-IRG.

• CRIMINALIZATION OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES: Land Defenders Call on Courts to Dismiss Criminal Contempt Charges.

• Coastal GasLink: A dangerous project that blatantly violates Indigenous rights. 2022

• Banking on Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022

• Royal Bank of Canada: Surging Finance of Fires, Floods & Climate Chaos. Year-to-date data on RBC’s financing of fossil fuel expansion. 2022

• Environmental Impact of Coastal GasLink Pipeline. 2022

• Examining risks of new oil and gas production in Canada. 2020

KKR is the investment firm that signed an agreement with Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCO) to purchase 65% of the Coastal GasLink Pipeline Project. Despite claiming they support responsible investment, and listing “Environmental, Social and Governance issues” as key areas of their partnerships principles to prioritize, they continue to violate Wet’suwet’en sovereignty and risk detrimental environmental damage.

KKR & Co. is the most evil private equity company you’ve never heard of. They buy and bankrupt other companies, impacting hundreds of thousands of workers through moving money from workers to the hands of corporate elites.

This Wall Street corporate giant funds the destruction of Wet’suwet’en land through investment in Coastal Gaslink’s fracked gas mega-project, fueling the single largest private investment in Canada, a massive gas export facility LNG Canada.