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A28 SCIENCE
Friday 21 February 2020
Students push universities to stop investing in fossil fuels

By MICHAEL MELIA past, administrators have
Associated Press outlined steps Harvard is
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) taking to address climate
— Students alarmed by cli- change while arguing that
mate change are stepping ending fossil fuel invest-
up pressure on universities ments wouldn't have a big
to pull investments from effect and that it makes
fossil fuel industries, an ef- little sense to sever ties with
fort that is gaining traction energy companies that
at prestigious schools like heat and light the campus.
Georgetown, Harvard and Connor Chung, a first-year
Yale. student and organizer for
The push that is underway Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard,
at hundreds of schools said the group hopes the
began nearly a decade university will reconsider.
ago, and student activists "At the end of the day, our
increasingly have learned goal is environmental jus-
from one another's tac- tice," he said. "Divestment is
tics and moved to act our tactic for getting there,
amid worsening predic- but it's not going to work
tions about the effects of unless we have a broader
climate change on the movement around the
planet. country and around the
Georgetown University's In this Nov. 23, 2019, file photo, Harvard and Yale students protest during halftime of the NCAA world of students demand-
board of directors an- college football game between Harvard and Yale at the Yale Bowl in New Haven, Conn. ing that their institutions
nounced this month that Associated Press end their complicity in the
it will end private invest- climate crisis."
ments in coal, oil and gas causing any net increases our time." that greenhouse gas emis- A group of Harvard stu-
companies within the next in heat-trapping carbon di- Yale says it has supported sions are driving climate dents also want to stop
decade, and some faculty oxide. shareholder resolutions call- change. investments in prisons and
at Harvard have called for For student activists, it's ing for companies to reveal A challenge for institutions companies that contract
a similar shift. There were about taking a moral and what they're doing to ad- is the prevalence of in- with them. They sued
sit-ins and demonstrations political stand. dress climate change and vestments in index funds, Wednesday, arguing the
last week at dozens of At Yale University, which asked endowment manag- which makes it difficult to school is violating state law
schools, including Gonza- has a $30.3 billion endow- ers not to invest in compa- separate out the roughly 4 by investing in an industry
ga University, the University ment, the Faculty of Arts nies that fail to take steps percent of energy stocks they describe as "present-
of Wisconsin, University of and Sciences Senate on to reduce greenhouse gas in such funds, said John day slavery." Harvard offi-
Pittsburgh and Cornell Uni- Thursday will discuss the emissions, but student ac- Jurewitz, a lecturer in eco- cials didn't immediately re-
versity. university's ethical obliga- tivists want a clean break. nomics at Pomona Col- spond to an email seeking
Several dozen schools have tions regarding fossil fuel in- The campus actions are lege. Colleges pulling their comment on the lawsuit.
stopped investing at least vestments. It became a big part of a broader push for investments also wouldn't At George Washington
partially in fossil fuels, but issue partly due to a widely insurers, pension funds and likely hurt oil companies, University, sophomore Izy
there is debate over how covered student protest governments worldwide to which have their own inter- Carney said a student
much the move slows the that disrupted a November end fossil fuel investments. nal cash flows, he said. campaign has taken inspi-
effects of climate change football game between Environmentalist and au- "It's mainly a political state- ration from the activism of
or affects the bottom line Harvard and Yale. thor Bill McKibben, a leader ment about what the uni- students elsewhere, includ-
of companies like Chevron "Yale has to take it seriously. of the movement to stop versity is willing to invest in," ing in the University of Cali-
and Exxon Mobil. We forced them to take it such investments, said stu- Jurewitz said. "It may be a fornia system, which an-
Many schools have de- seriously. The faculty dis- dents have played a huge worthwhile statement if you nounced a plan to end fos-
fended their investments, cussions are evidence of role. believe it will help get the sil fuel investments in 2019.
citing a duty to preserve that," said Ben Levin, a stu- "They've kept it up through ball rolling toward getting After hearing from student
and grow the income they dent leader with the Yale two generations of under- some realistic, meaningful activists, George Wash-
receive from donations, Endowment Justice Coali- graduates. Administrators policy like a carbon tax or ington's board of trustees
while touting efforts to use tion. "They're also evidence hoped they'd graduate cap and trade, something announced a task force
investments as leverage to of the fact that the faculty and that would be the end that will put a price on the this month on managing
engage energy compa- are incredibly concerned of the pressure, but instead carbon in some practical environmental responsibil-
nies, find solutions for cli- because they don't want it keeps building," said way." ity. But it did not mention
mate change through re- to be working for a univer- McKibben, a scholar in resi- The Independent Petro- divestment as a possibility.
search and make campus- sity that's on the wrong side dence at Middlebury Col- leum Association of Amer- Carney, a member of Sun-
es carbon neutral by not of the most pressing issue of lege, which announced ica has pushed back with rise GW, a student group
last year it would divest its its own campaign, arguing dedicated to fighting cli-
$1.1 billion endowment divestment would cost uni- mate change, said they
from fossil fuels. versity endowments millions would keep up the pres-
Student government lead- a year with little impact on sure.
ers from the Big Ten Con- carbon emissions. "Right now, it sounds like
ference called last month At Harvard, which has a profits is what our university
for their 14 schools to begin $40.9 billion endowment, is after," Carney said. "We
divesting from fossil fuels, President Lawrence Bacow just want to make sure our
passing a resolution that said he would take a fac- school is doing everything
cited the conclusion of the ulty motion to the Harvard it can to make sure it is not
U.N.'s Intergovernmental Corporation, the universi- contributing to the climate
Panel on Climate Change ty's executive board. In the crisis."q