“We are health workers and the choice to end any links to fossil fuel assets is an ethical one. But beyond personal divestment, how do we use our influence to accelerate the green finance transition?”
Dr Helen Redmond, Convenor Healthy Investment Group

DEA has been involved in promoting the green finance transition since 2013 when the first Divestment working group was formed. DEA members supported the efforts of 350.org Australia and Market Forces in numerous bank divestment actions and began promoting personal divestment from fossil fuels from our banking, investments and superannuation. DEA successfully campaigned alongside other groups to urge health insurance companies to divest from fossil fuels.

DEA has established engagement with Australia’s largest industry health superannuation funds which have responded to our calls for reducing exposure to fossil fuels. Our engagement with First State Super is now of 6 years duration. In that time the fund has grown to $150 billion, and absorbed other funds. Rebranding as Aware Super in 2020, they undertook a mass divestment that reduced the carbon footprint of their holdings in equities by 40%. They have set targets and exceeded them, increasing investment in climate solutions. HESTA has followed a similar trajectory with a different strategy of continuing to hold shares so as to influence voting and the board of high emitting companies – as they recently did to stop the AGL demerger. Our SA Healthy Investment group engage with SuperSA resulting in improved accountability and visibility of their SRI option.

Our students and academic members continue to engage with their universities, and our fellows engage with their colleges. DEA members recently began participating in shareholder activism, in order to represent the health impacts of climate change to big emitting fossil fuel companies at their AGMs.

Formerly known as the Divestment SiG and now renamed as the Healthy Investment SiG, the group continues to seek the opportunities to accelerate the green finance transition. We welcome your ideas and new members.

There is no green transition without a green finance transition.

Resources:
Divest your banking: https://www.marketforces.org.au/info/compare-bank-table/
Check how responsible your investment/super is: https:www.responsiblereturns.com.au
Become a shareholder advocate: https://hub.accr.org.au/

University engagement:
https://johnmenadue.com/universities-and-the-future-of-humanity/
https://johnmenadue.com/do-universities-with-medical-schools-fail-on-fossil-fuels/

Videos:
Responsible Investment session at iDEA 2022
Carolyn Orr DEA member TEDx talk Perth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jduP_6qxaUA
Helen Redmond TEDx talk Sydney https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=764f7SVtjMA
Reports:
Investing in Health report 2016