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Story of the Week: January 2020

Divestment from trading leads to an average 15.2% drop in transfers from endowment accounts to school programs

Divestment from trading leads to an average 15.2% drop in transfers from endowment accounts to school programs

The financial impacts of divestment from trading, compliance and diversification losses leads to an average 15.2% drop in transfers from endowment accounts to school programs, translating to increased annual tuition rates, scholarship losses and reductions in faculty spending.

We continue to use fossil fuels day after day in every aspect of our lives

We continue to use fossil fuels day after day in every aspect of our lives

It seems unlikely to us that divestment from fossil fuel would ‘revoke a social license’ when we continue to use fossil fuels day after day in every aspect of our lives.

Columbia University Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing

Many of those

Many of those "big bad fossil fuel" companies are also the biggest investors in renewable energy

Many of those "big bad fossil fuel" companies are also the biggest investors in renewable energy such as solar and wind power generation, and in research (including university research) for technologies to improve conservation, efficiency and overall environmental sustainability.

Martha Hall Findlay and Jean Charest

The divestment movement will not reduce demand for oil and gas — depthandtime/flickr, CC BY-NC.

The divestment movement will not reduce demand for oil and gas

The divestment movement will not reduce demand for oil and gas. It will transfer the supply of fossil fuel to companies that are more polluting, less transparent, less sensitive to societal pressures, and less committed to addressing the climate crisis.

Stefan Andreasson, Senior Lecturer, Queens University Belfast