Hundreds of Victorian doctors and medical staff are pressuring their super funds to quit investing in coal and oil for the sake of health, as they did with tobacco five years ago.
The group, which includes some of Australia's leading health experts, says there is overwhelming evidence that climate change is already making people sick and causing thousands of deaths.
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Combined, the two default health super funds have about $1.72 billion invested in these heavily fossil fuel-based companies, according to Market Forces, an environmental investment advisory group.
They point to fatal thunderstorm asthma attacks in Melbourne last year and the 45-day Hazelwood mine fire as recent local examples.
More than 650 health professionals nationwide have signed up to the cause so far, including former Australian of the year Professor Fiona Stanley, celebrated for her achievements in child health, and Dr Grant Blashki, associate professor in global health at the University of Melbourne's Nossal Institute.
The pro-divestment group, called Healthy Futures, have called on HESTA and First State to abandon their investments in companies including Caltex, Woodside Petroleum, Exxon and Origin.
Co-founder Kate Lardner, a Melbourne-based surgical resident, said health workers in the group did not want their retirement savings to support carbon-intensive industries.
"As health professionals, we don't want to see our money invested in fossil fuels that cause air pollution in places like the Latrobe Valley and contribute to climate change that we're already seeing locally," Dr Lardner said.
The Andrews government has commissioned a study into the long-term health effects of the Hazelwood coal mine fire, which blanketed the town of Morwell in smoke and ash for several weeks in 2014.
It also spent $15 million on a thunderstorm asthma warning system after Melbourne's ambulances and hospitals were overwhelmed by people suffering intense asthma attacks last spring.
Dr Lardner said thunderstorm asthma could not be directly attributed to climate change, but more frequent and violent storms could be.
The Hazelwood Health Study has already produced evidence that Morwell residents are at much greater risk of having a heart attack than other Gippsland communities.
The two super funds said they had no plan to divest from the companies targeted by Healthy Futures.
Liza McDonald, First State's Head of Responsible Investments, said the fund preferred to engage with emissions-intensive industries on climate change rather than cut them loose.
"However, if we do have concerns about long-term sustainability issues with an individual company, we would consider a range of options, which may include divestment," Ms McDonald said.
HESTA said it would only divest from a company as a last resort.
In a letter to the Doctors Reform Society, a medical think tank that has joined the campaign, HESTA said that to divest would limit the ability to encourage coal and oil-based corporations to reform.
"The aim is to accelerate the move to a less carbon intensive future. Ownership provides leverage which greatly increases the impact of our engagement," HESTA wrote.
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