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One of the world's biggest and Watch The Grey Onlinemost prestigious museums says it has cut its holdings in fossil fuel companies.

The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) on Monday said it had reduced its financial exposure to coal, oil and natural gas companies. The New York City institution said the move aligns with its longstanding efforts to help protect the fragile planet.

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"We hope we can achieve our collective goal of global sustainability while maximizing the resources each of our institutions brings to bear on this vital issue," Daniel Stoddard, AMNH's chief investment officer, wrote in a letter to environmental groups.

The museum's announcement was celebrated by climate groups calling on institutions to divest from fossil fuels, although the museum said its efforts were not divestment.

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Hundreds of institutions in dozens of countries have made commitments to shed their holdings in fossil fuel stocks. The institutions represent a combined $5 trillion in assets under management, up from $2.6 trillion in total assets last year, Arabella Advisors, a sustainable investment firm, reported Monday.

Divestment proponents say their goal is not necessarily to bankrupt energy companies. Instead, the idea is that by eliminating holdings in fossil fuels, investors send a signal that those energy companies are undesirable and morally incompatible with a low-carbon future.

Museums in particular are facing pressure to divest because they play such an influential role in shaping the public's understanding of science and natural history. In the U.S., museums are also among the most trusted institutions, according to the American Alliance of Museums.

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"We look at these institutions as powerful spaces to communicate science and natural history and to help people understand our relationship to nature," said Beka Economopoulos, who directs the Natural History Museum, a mobile museum that champions climate action.

"We want to activate these dusty dioramas and help make science and natural history more relevant to people's day to day lives and pressing contemporary concerns," she told Mashable.

Economopoulos and members of the grassroots activist group 350.org are leading the campaign to get museums to reevaluate their fossil fuel holdings.

The organizers argue that since museums are largely considered beacons of scientific truth, it doesn't make sense for museums to maintain ties to companies or individuals that profit from fossil fuels or fund lobbying groups that spread false information on climate science.

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Since March 2015, around 150 climate scientists have signed a letter warning museum directors that their fossil fuel connections could "undermine public confidence in the validity of these institutions."

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Anne Canty, a spokeswoman for AMNH, said the natural history museum began reviewing its fossil fuel exposure in 2014. "It's such a broad issue in society that we thought it warranted this kind of review," Canty told Mashable.

The museum's $650 million endowment doesn't include any direct investments in fossil fuels, according to Stoddard's letter to environmentalists. But a small percentage of indirect holdings are connected to oil, coal and natural gas companies through pooled investment funds.

In June 2015, the museum asked all its investment managers to "take environmental and climate change issues into account" when reviewing existing investments and when making new investments.

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As a result, AMNH's fossil fuel investments have declined from about 4 percent of its endowment in 2014 to less than 2 percent today. The museum is also looking for portfolio managers who prioritize investments in renewable energy, according to the letter.

Monday's news was a major boost for climate groups working to get museums to distance themselves from fossil fuels, activists said.

So far, only about seven other science and natural history museums have divulged their plans to reduce investments in fossil fuels, and most have done so with little fanfare.

The Field Museum in Chicago first announced its divestment decision in November 2015, in response to a tweet from 350.org's Chicago branch. A spokesperson for the Field Museum confirmed via email that the institution had "divested from direct holdings in fossil fuels in 2015" but did not elaborate.

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Other institutions have so far resisted activists' calls to break their ties to fossil fuels.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., told Mashableit did not have a formal policy on fossil fuel companies and was not involved in any organized divestment campaigns.

Economopoulos said she hoped AMNH's announcement would encourage the Smithsonian and other institutions to reconsider their connections to fossil fuels -- particularly at a time when President-elect Donald Trump is vowing to undermine climate change policy at the federal level.

"This is precisely a time when we need to stand up for science," she said.

Correction, Dec. 12, 2016: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the American Museum of Natural History was divesting from fossil fuel companies. The museum said it is "reducing its exposure" to fossil fuels.

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