The Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church, via its investment arm Investment Management, has sold its remaining company holdings in the oil and gas sector, including Shell.

This follows advice received from the Methodist Church’s Joint Advisory Committee on the Ethics of Investment (JACEI) that no companies in the sector are currently aligned with the climate change targets set out by the 2015 Paris Accord.

For over three years, JACEI has been assessing companies in the oil and gas sector against the targets set by the Paris Accord using a number of metrics. The Methodist Church recognised the climate emergency at its 2019 Conference and is in the process of determining how it might bring forward to 2030 its commitment to achieve net-zero emissions.

Revd Dr Stephen Wigley, Chair of JACEI, commented: “The Committee has determined that the slow pace of corporate change means that the oil and gas sector is failing to meet the targets set by the Paris Accord. Shell, along with its peers, is currently failing to play a substantial enough role in addressing the climate emergency.”

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