Roskilde Municipality has decided to sell its shares in coal, oil and gas, thus becoming the first local government in Denmark, and just second in the Nordic region, to offload all its fossil fuel stock.
According to Politiken, the decision was taken recently at a meeting of the municipal council regarding a new budget proposal.
“Our municipality has experienced severe floods and torrential rain of late, so if our residents don’t understand it’s important to prevent climate change, then I don’t know who would,” Jeppe Trolle, a municipal councillor, told the newspaper.
Roskilde is now working with Nordea bank, which manages the municipality’s investments, on a strategy to meet the objectives of its ‘Responsible Future’ initiative as soon as possible.
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Only Örebro has done the same
While the municipality has only 39 million kroner invested in the stock, of which only a small part is held in coal and oil shares, Thomas Meinert Larsen, the spokesman for the initiative, believes the decision sends a clear signal the municipality won’t support black energy.
It is a stance shared by Örebro Municipality in Sweden, while in March, Oslo became the first capital in the world to sell off its investments in coal.
