It’s time to accelerate our response to climate change!

May 22, 2018

At Ben & Jerry’s, we believe the science of global warming is settled. The question now is, what are we doing about it?

To help Australian’s understand what they can do, we joined our friends at 350.org with their co-founder and leading environmental activist, Bill McKibben, on Australia’s Accelerate Climate Action Tour.  The tour gave more than 1,750 Australians in Newcastle, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide the opportunity to learn more about how they can take action to oppose new fossil fuel projects and take money out of the companies that are heating up the planet and cooking the climate.

So, what was the Accelerate tour all about?

We are glad you asked! The ‘Accelerate’ tour was about inspiring people to join forces, use their combined pressure to speed up action and support the move away from fossil fuels. In order to avoid disastrous impacts to our planet, we need to make sure that 80% of current fossil fuel reserves remain in the ground. Targeting the fossil fuel industry through divestment is one of the most powerful ways of ensuring that happens.

But what’s Divestment?

Good question. For those that missed the tour here is a quick recap - Governments and institutions are still investing billions in expanding access to fossil fuels, which is moving us ever closer towards a future of climate change with catastrophic consequences. Divestment means we hit em’ where it hurts: their bank accounts. The fossil fuel divestment movement calls on institutions around the world, from churches and non-profits to schools and universities, to sell off their holdings from fossil-fuel businesses.

Sounds great but the tours already happened, how can I play my part?

We were hoping you would ask that! 35 Councils across Australia have already committed to divest from fossil fuels and with your help we can persuade the others to commit. Join us, 350 Australia and the 1,300+ people who have already signed up to the campaign to ask our councils to Freeze their Fossil Fuels investment and pledge to divest. Join us at http://act.350.org/signup/freeze_fossil_fuels/ to find out how you can get involved.