In January, investment giant, Goldman Sachs, which has already forecast that the value of the coal industry “will be gradually eroded,” recently divested its stake in a Seattle company with plans to construct the proposed Gateway Pacific coal export terminal. The project's proponents hope to ship 50 million metric tons of American coal to Asia each year, a business model that many long-view investors deem unsustainable.

Oxford University recently released a study entitled, “Stranded Assets and the Fossil Fuel Divestment Campaign: what does divestment mean for the valuation of fossil fuel assets?” In it, authors Tom Swann and Richard Denniss suggest that the coal industry's tarnished reputation as a result of their colossal contribution to run-away climate change is reason enough for investors to seriously consider divesting:

“The outcome of the stigmatization process, which the fossil fuel divestment campaign has now triggered, poses the most far-reaching threat to fossil fuel companies and the vast energy value chain.”