The heirs of United States late oil magnate John D Rockefeller say they're getting out of so-called big oil.
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund has joined an international movement, with over $50 billion dollars in assets, championing divestment from some of the world's greatest polluters.
The philanthropic trust run by John D Rockefeller's descendants, has announced it aims to reduce exposure to fossil fuels as much as possible and end all investments in coal and tar sands by the end of the year.
It's a move, the fund claims, in line with the progressive vision held by the founding patriarch.
Valerie Rockefeller Wayne, the chair of the fund, says it reflects the Fund's commitment to sustainability.
"There's an imperative behind this on many fronts to move into alternative investments, so we have approached it very carefully," she told the BBC.
"In 2010 our board endorsed a commitment of up to 10 per cent of our now $860 million (US) endowment towards alternative investments - what we call impact investing or sustainable investing - that would be more aligned with our grant-making."“Over half of the money that we do give out as a non-profit is towards sustainable development, so it just made sense to have our endowment supporting the work that we're doing through our grantees and with our grantees in sustainable development."
The Director of the Centre for Energy Technology at the University of Adelaide, Professor Gus Nathan, says its part of a growing long-term global trend towards renewables.
But he doesn't foresee any immediate damage to the fossil fuel industry.
"All industries will seek resources from a range of locations and the established industries, such as the fossil fuels industry, already have many years of investment and their technologies are quite well established. So, there are still plenty of drivers to continue to use these resources,” he told SBS.
“Nevertheless, this does mark a shift in the trend and the further we see investment in cleaner technologies, the more rapidly that will lower their cost."
More than 120 heads of state and governments are attending a major climate summit at the United Nations headquarters in New York this week.
They're being joined by international business, finance and civil society delegates.
The host, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, says he needs all hands on deck on what he's described as one of the defining issues of our time.
In the days ahead of the event, tens of thousands of people took to the streets around the world calling for action on climate change.
Representing Australia is Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, in place of Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who'll also be in New York, but for other meetings.
Signalling its stance on climate change, the Australian government has abolished the carbon tax, saying the focus will be on its so-called Direct Action plan to reduce carbon emissions.
But Professor Gus Nathan argues there is a future for Australia in renewable energy.
"Australia should be proactive in investing in transforming our energy exports from our current complete dependence on, effectively, raw fossil fuels. Now there is some ongoing processing to Liquefied Natural Gas, but longer-term we can be exporting either cleaner fossil fuels which have been upgraded to a lower carbon content. Or in the future we could be transporting things like solar-based fuels which would then be providing carbon-neutral feedstocks,” he says.
“To do this Australia can be proactive in investing in the technologies to allow us to lead this path. If we're not proactive then we could suddenly find ourselves with an $80 billion hole in our budget."
