Our Task Force has submitted four pieces of climate justice legislation to this year’s Annual Conference Session. The Resolution to Boycott Chevron to Defend God’s Creation and Human Rights adds the California-Nevada Conference to the list of groups that are joining the global boycott of Chevron Corporation by signing the boycott statement of United Methodists for Kairos Response and encouraging congregations to mobilize boycott activities in their area.
The full text of the Boycott Chevron resolution is as follows:
Resolution to Boycott Chevron to Defend God’s Creation and Human Rights
Resolution
Be it resolved that the California-Nevada Conference shall join the global boycott of Chevron Corporation by signing the boycott statement of United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR)[1], and
Be it further resolved that the Conference Secretary shall send a notification of this conference decision to the CEO of Chevron, accompanied by the full text of this resolution as well as the 2024 UMKR letter to Chevron which includes the reasons for and demands of the boycott[2], and
Be it further resolved that all individuals and congregations of the conference are strongly encouraged to sign the boycott statement which can be found through the UMKR website, kairosresponse.org, and
Be it further resolved that individuals and congregations are strongly encouraged to use organizing tools and educational resources at the UMKR website to inform United Methodists of the underlying issues of this boycott and to mobilize boycott activities in their area, and
Be it further resolved that the California-Nevada Board of Pensions shall determine if it holds any current investments in Chevron Corporation, and if so, will divest of those holdings.
Background:
Scripture cautions us to “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, rather expose them.” (Ephesians 5:11).
Chevron supports Israel’s apartheid regime and its genocidal war against the Palestinian people while also bringing environmental destruction to countries around the world. United Methodist advocates for creation justice and for Palestinian rights are united in calling for a boycott of Chevron Corporation.
The UMC justice movement, United Methodists for Kairos Response (UMKR), sent a letter to the CEO of Chevron in 2024, notifying him that United Methodist justice advocates were planning to join the global boycott, and to expand it in our denomination along with describing the campaign demands that must be met to end the boycott: “to cease operations in the gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestine…. [and] to stop conducting business that gravely violates Palestinian human rights and benefits Israel’s genocidal apartheid regime.”
Chevron runs natural gas extraction and pipelines off the shore of Palestine/Israel, illegally exploiting Palestinian natural resources with the help of the Israeli government.[3]
Israel depends heavily on fossil gas for electricity, and Chevron is the largest producer of natural gas for Israel. Chevron’s pipelines and natural gas supply help to supply all branches of the Israeli government and military bases as well as the illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Yet, electricity is denied to many Palestinian communities throughout the region, a feature of Israeli apartheid. The supply of electricity is used by Israel as a tool of subjugation, collective punishment, annexation, and dispossession, and Chevron is complicit in those crimes.
Chevron is also complicit in Israel’s decades-long military occupation which the International Court of Justice ruled illegal in July 2024.[4] This ruling called for an end to all commercial and business activities that facilitate Israel’s regime of occupation and oppression.[5]
As a major economic partner of the state, Chevron is also implicated in Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza since 2023.
Chevron’s destructive partnership with Apartheid Israel reflects its behavior around the world.
Chevron is one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, fueling the climate crisis around the world. As of 2024, the company is one of the 25 largest polluters in the world.[6]
It is also one the most dangerous oil corporations, destroying land, poisoning rivers and streams, ravaging communities, and financing violence, while also filing litigation against anyone who tries to hold the company accountable for its actions.
Chevron’s activities have played a role in the destruction of marginalized people’s homes, resources, and livelihoods in at least 30 countries, such as the deliberate dumping of 16 billion gallons of toxic wastewater into Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest, which it has refused to clean up and which is regarded as one of the worst oil-related environmental disasters in history.[7]
Chevron has committed acts of climate destruction within the region of the California-Nevada Conference, such as the 600 gallon oil spill into the San Francisco Bay in 2021.[8]
Chevron’s oil and gas operations have exploited indigenous communities and have resulted in violence against many for which it faces dozens of charges, including allegations of genocide and torture, in Ecuador, Chad, Cameroon, Indonesia, Cambodia, Nigeria, China and the Philippines, among other countries. It has amassed more than $50 billion in judgments and settlement debts for its human rights and environmental crimes around the world that it refuses to pay.[9] [10]
The United Methodist Social Principles support the use of boycotts as an effective tool to address unjust or harmful practices by businesses. [11]
In March 2025, the General Board of Church and Society joined the global call to boycott Chevron Oil Company[12]
[1] https://umkr.salsalabs.org/chevron-stopfuelinggenocide/index.html
[2] UMKR Letter to Chevron CEO announcing the boycott
[3] https://afsc.org/chevron-fuels-israeli-apartheid-and-war-crimes
[4] Summary of the Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024, International Court of Justice, July 2024
[5] Powering Injustice: Exploring the legal consequences for states and corporations involved in supplying energy to Israel, SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations), December 2024
[6] Chevron has a major role in fueling the climate crisis, which is directly impacting Californians. Chevron is currently being sued by CA Attorney General Rob Bonta for engaging in a “decades-long campaign of deception regarding the reality of climate change and the connection between combustion of fossil fuels and climate change, resulting in climate change-related harms in California.”
[7] Chevron’s Global Destruction: Ecocide, Genocide and Corruption, Dr. Nan Greer, May 2021
[8] A clear danger oil spill in California city revives calls to cut ties with Chevron, The Guardian, Feb. 2021
[9] Chevron’s Environmental Crimes: 13 Years of Evasion and Escalation, Amazon Watch, February 2024
[10] https://www.ipmsdl.org/uncategorized/peoples-of-the-world-resist-chevron-chevron-out-of-the-cordillera-philippines-now/
[11] Social Principles: The Economic Community | UMC.org
[12] https://www.umcjustice.org/latest/church-and-society-spring-2025-board-meeting-highlights-5125