THE Episcopal Church in the United States has announced its complete disinvestment from all fossil fuels, after a decade of action towards shifting funds into renewable energy and ethical investments.

The disinvestment came three weeks before a final deadline imposed by the General Convention in the summer, which ruled that “any and all investments in fossil fuel industries . . . to be sold by December 31 2024”. It does not apply, however, to the Church’s much larger pension investments.

The Episcopal News Service (ENS) said that the Church’s investment portfolio amounted to about $500 million.

Sarah Lawton, who chairs the executive council’s committee on corporate social responsibility (CSSR), said: “In all our work, CCSR will continue to consider our investments in terms of our deeply held values as a Church. We encourage other church bodies with investments to do so as well.”

Policies prevent investment in companies that violate human rights, tobacco products, for-profit prisons, military contracting, and fossil fuels, and instead support investment in firms that are environmentally and socially responsible.

In 2015, a resolution adopted by the 78th General Convention called on the Church to “divest from fossil fuel companies and reinvest in clean renewable energy in a fiscally responsible manner”.

Ms Lawton told ENS: “The Episcopal Church was an early leader in the global movement to consider ethical criteria and faith commitments, and also long-term risk assessments, in investment and portfolio decisions, starting with our work to oppose apartheid in South Africa in the 1970s. It is good to see our Church now put our money where our mouth is on this existential issue of climate change.”

The disinvestment does not apply to the Church Pension Group’s much larger $17.5-billion investment portfolio. In a Sustainability Report in 2022, it said that it was increasing its investment in renewable energy and using its influence to lobby companies to increase their sustainability.

Dioceses are also not included. The diocese of Oklahoma’s 2025 budget showed that it expected to earn $1.17 million next year from oil and gas income.

The Church of England Pensions Board and the Church Commissioners last year announced that they would disinvest from oil and gas companies that were not in alignment with the Paris Agreement.