The 2015 Paris Agreement was supposed to be a landmark moment in the fight against climate change. More than two decades after the UN held its first Earth Summit to discuss sustainable development, the group had finally produced what was hailed as the “world’s first comprehensive climate agreement.” Under the agreement, the international community would work together to hold global warming “well below” an agreed-upon limit of 2ºC, to be achieved by way of strict, enforceable caps on carbon emissions asking very nicely if everybody would maybe knock it off with the pollution, please?

On Monday, leaders of an unprecedented coalition that includes environment, youth, business, faith and community groups delivered a petition to Gov.-Elect Jared Polis’ office. The petition calls for meaningful action to protect Colorado communities from fracking and to address climate change through a just & equitable transition to renewable energy. “We call on Governor Polis to stand up for the 1.1 million Colorado voters who understand the real and serious dangers of fracking to our families and want meaningful protections, as well as 73% of Coloradans who are personally concerned about the issue of climate change,” said Micah Parkin, Executive Director of 350 Colorado.

Thanks to Isaac Furtney for today’s blog post. Isaac is a PERA member and believes that PERA should join the global divest-invest movement, not only to be on the “right side of history” environmentally speaking, but also to ensure it fulfills its sole purpose: to maintain its assets in the present and in the future to fund the retirement of its members.