DENVER – On Thursday, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) met to discuss the state’s path toward meeting climate goals set by HB 19-1261 last year. New research released Tuesday of this week showed that Colorado is currently on track to miss the bill’s 2025 and 2030 emission reduction goals by a wide margin, threatening the health and safety of millions of residents.

350 Colorado is running a number of campaigns focused on defunding climate disaster, including a statewide divestment campaign targeting the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), Colorado’s state pension fund. This past year, Fossil Free PERA members and 350 Colorado staff and volunteers have been calling on PERA to divest through presence at board meetings, supporting legislation in 2019 that would have required PERA to assess climate-related financial risk, and most recently meeting with PERA staff, Director and Chief Investment Officer on the issue.

COLORADO: Colorado’s Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA), which manages the pensions of half a million current and former state employees, and California state pension funds CalSTRS and CalPERS lost over $19 billion in returns by not divesting from fossil fuel stocks ten years ago, according to new analyses performed by media and analysis firm Corporate Knights.

Below if a press release from our partners at Divest-Invest, where an international summit on divestment is taking place this week in South Africa. Here is Colorado, we’re excited to be contributing to this movement both at the city level with Denver’s announcement to divest from fossil fuels earlier this year – as well as through our work pressuring PERA, Colorado’s State Pension Fund, to divest from fossil fuels. 

 Fort Collins, CO – The Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate (CCLC) recently sent a letter to all nine members of Colorado’s congressional delegation urging them to work on moving legislation forward in Congress that will address the climate crisis.  We told eight of them this: “Given the threat the climate crisis poses to Colorado and the number of bills related to climate issues that were passed by the State General Assembly and signed into law by Governor Polis earlier this year, we are surprised and disappointed by the apparent lack of interest in climate issues on the part of the majority of Colorado’s congressional delegation. 

DENVER, CO – On Monday, June 17th, and Tuesday, June 18th, the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) hosted the first of several special rulemaking hearings to enact the directives of SB 19-181, the ‘Protect Public Welfare Oil and Gas Operations,’ which passed the Colorado Legislature on April 17th. This new law reformed the Commission’s mission to no longer foster oil and gas development, but to regulate oil and gas in such as way as to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, and wildlife.

Yesterday, the Climate Action Plan to Reduce Pollution bill, HB 19-1261, received final approval from the legislature, and is now ready for the Governor’s signature. The Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate (CCLC) recognizes and appreciates the historic progress the legislature has made this session in attempting to get Colorado to do its part in addressing the looming climate disaster.

DENVER, CO – Denver Mayor Michael Hancock announced that the City of Denver has begun divesting its $6bn General Funds’ portfolio from fossil fuel investments. The city said it was able to move quickly through the process as fossil fuels were already a small percentage of the overall portfolio – totaling approximately $179M.

Fort Collins, CO – Yesterday, the long-anticipated bill to establish new climate goals for the State of Colorado was released by its cosponsors in the House and Senate.  The Colorado Coalition for a Livable Climate (CCLC), a broad coalition of 26 member organizations of which 350 Colorado is a member, supports efforts to address the climate crisis and calls on the General Assembly to adopt bolder climate goals than those currently proposed in the bill in order to be more consistent with a 66% chance of limiting the global average temperature rise no more than 1.5