We believe St Hilda’s should do this for three main reasons: 1. To demonstrate support for its own scholars; 2. To remain financially responsible in a world turning its support away from the fossil fuel industry; 3. To show leadership within and as part of the university. By divesting from fossil fuels, St Hilda’s college can support its scholars, show leadership within the university and as part of a university with such an important reputation, and adopt the best investment practice from both an ethical and financial perspective. As St Hilda’s College academics, staff and alumnae, we therefore urge the college to take action on climate change and divest from fossil fuels.

Climate change caused by greenhouse gases is one of the most serious threats to the future of the planet and we are already beginning to see its effects both globally and locally, with extreme weather events such as storms, droughts and flooding becoming more common. If we continue to burn fossil fuels at the current rate it will have devastating effects on our planet and communities. By divesting our university's money from fossil fuel companies we will be helping in the fight against climate change. Not only are fossil fuel companies harmful to the planet, they are also an unsound investment, with the value of many companies falling drastically. It would be better to remove our money sooner rather than later. UCLan has a reputation as a very green university, clearly its investments should reflect this. Several UK universities have already divested from fossil fuels, surely it's time to join them.

The reasons we make these demands are twofold; preventing mitigating the impacts of catastrophic climate change and renewing the University's commitment to sustainability. The scientific community has long held the consensus that two degrees Celsius of warming will cause rising sea levels, droughts, biodiversity loss and more extreme weather fronts amongst other phenomena. Global oil, gas and coal reserves held by extraction companies contain five times more carbon than the planet's atmosphere can handle safely. Burning just 20% of this would be enough to incur runaway climate change. Divestment is thus a powerful moral and cultural tool to avert this. The University of St Andrews has a proud history of ethical investment. Indeed it is one of only three universities in the UK with an explicit sustainable investment policy. St Andrews has embraced sustainable development in its research and operations; it was the first in the UK to introduce a teaching programme in Sustainable Development in 2004 and boasts a host of environmental and research institutes such as as the St Andrews Sustainability Institute (SASI). Most of our fund has been divested from fossil fuels, we should thus go one extra step and rid fossil fuels from our investment portfolio altogether. As a member of the University this is not only your opportunity to ensure a better world, but your responsibility to both future generations and in supporting the University's desire to become carbon neutral for energy. Please sign this petition to ensure that future.

We urge the University to divest for three reasons: 1. Public divestment is a necessary counterpart to Cornell’s climate action leadership in research and education; the University is effectively endorsing the fossil fuel industry by its financial silence on this issue. 2. As the world shifts toward a low carbon energy profile, the fiduciary interests of Cornell’s endowment will be well served by an expeditious exit from fossil fuel equities. 3. We believe in supporting the five campus assemblies that have already come to this decision for the sake of a healthy democracy at Cornell. Recently, Cornell sent a delegate to COP21 in Paris which included Bob Howarth who is well known for his research on methane gas in the atmosphere. For those of us watching and reading about the event at home, it was extremely distressing to see the extent to which the United States is holding back the entire world from necessary change. Although this movement may have started on college campuses, universities have been slow to divest. We have previously been led to believe this is about the financial performance of endowments. However, recent independent analysis has shown that a diversified portfolio without fossil fuel equities would perform as well or better than one with them. Even though the target equities currently comprise a mere ½ of one percent of the endowment, divestment would have gained Cornell at least $45 million over the past decade. Universities that have participated in divestment actions have outperformed Cornell. We ask that Cornell join the many educational institutions, pension and sovereign wealth funds, and faith-based and charitable organizations who have divested since this movement began in 2013. Currently over 500 institutional investors have committed to some form of fossil fuel divestment, amounting to over $3 trillion of assets (gofossilfree.org/commitments/). The Student Assembly, Faculty Senate, Graduate and Professional Students Assembly, Employee Assembly, and University Assembly have already requested that Cornell should join the global divestment movement. This unanimity of all the on-campus constituencies is unprecedented in Cornell’s history. This fall, over 1,300 members of the Cornell community signed a letter supporting divestment, which was presented to the Board of Trustees. We want to add our voice to theirs.

To a significant extent, the future of students currently studying at the University of Bradford will be shaped by contemporary responses to the threat of dangerous climate change. We believe that it is the University's responsibility to do all within its power to contribute to solutions to the climate crisis that fully respect the conclusions of climate science, and that are in line with principles of equity and justice.

Planeten värms upp av utsläppen som till störst del orsakas av förbränning av fossila bränslen. Är det fel att förstöra klimatet så är det fel att göra vinster på den förstöringen och fel att finansiera den! Som Lantbruksuniversitet har SLU en viktig roll för miljön och klimatet och ett beslut om divestering väger tungt i klimatdebatten! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We all know the connection between fossil fuels and climate change. An Environmentally friendly university like SLU has to lead the way not only in theory, but also in practice!

Currently, NUI Galway has at least 3.4 million Euro invested in oil and gas shares globally. Though shares in these fossil fuel companies may prove to be profitable in the short-term, research indicates that at least 80% of fossil fuel reserves must stay in the ground in order to prevent catastrophic changes to our climate. Therefore, it is the responsibility of public institutions to disengage in partnerships and support of fossil fuel companies in favor of more sustainable and ethical investments that will promote the health and welfare of both the planet, and all of her peoples.

Climate change and other environmental issues are the greatest threat facing humanity as a whole in this century. We have a human responsibility to each other and our descendants to minimize our impact. Failure in this regard will be tragic and expensive, represented by the poor condition many fossil fuel companies which have failed to modernize and begin moving to alternatives are in as far as profits and stock value. The University of Evansville, as a bastion of higher learning, has a responsibility to its students and donors to maintain both profitable and ethical investments, of which a great many fossil fuel companies fail to be at least one.

At the moment Durham University has an investment policy that states that they won't invest in arms or tobacco companies. But no such policy against investing in fossil fuel companies exists. Carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels results in the heating of the atmosphere. A rise of more than 2˚C in global temperatures is enough to put the world beyond the acceptable limits as outlined by scientists. Fossil fuel companies already have proven reserves of five times the amount needed to take us past this limit. At the moment the share price of fossil fuel companies is based on the idea that all the reserves held by fossil fuel companies will be burnt. This situation is not viable given the severely detrimental impact it will have on the environment. This disparity between the safely useable reserves and the proven reserves results in fossil fuel companies being not as safe a long-term investment as they are held up to be. Given the massive amounts of damage fossil fuel companies do to the lives of people around the world, the obvious environmental costs of the industry and the long term instability of fossil fuels as an investment, Durham University People & Planet Society are calling on the university to divest any money it has invested in fossil fuel companies and to add fossil fuels to the list of things in which it will not invest in the future.

We will not keep climate change at bay without halting our extraction of fossil-fuels. Plymouth University prides itself in its sustainability and environmental performance however neglecting to sign the declaration and commit to excluding fossil fuels from future investments shows a clear inconsistency in their policy. The People and Planet society here at Plymouth University want this to change. Despite no current investments in fossil fuels there is no policy stopping this in the future. Plymouth University was once at the top of the People and Planet University League Table (2015), but by 2019 had dropped down to 15th. By signing the Fossil Free Declaration Plymouth could both increase their position AND show a renewed commitment to global social and climate justice. As students we are investing our time and money into our education and future. So why shouldn't our institute of learning promise never to invest in Fossil Fuels and invest in our future instead?

Fossil fuel companies’ current reserves of oil, coal and gas hold 5 times more carbon than the world’s atmosphere can safely handle. Their business plan will cause climate chaos for billions of us, yet UK universities still collectively invest £5.2 billion in fossil fuel companies (1). The University of Cambridge and Colleges have an overall endowment that equates to almost £5 billion (Ibid.). Without an ethical policy (unlike universities such as Oxford, UCL and St. Andrews), this money is invested in companies without consideration of their catastrophic environmental impact. At a global and local level, the impacts of these investments contradict the University’s positive contributions to society, through research and education. Over the past two years the global divestment movement has shown the very real path to a sustainable, fossil-free future. Regarding fossil fuels, the divestment campaign is the fastest growing climate justice campaign in history. So far, $2.6 trillion has been divested from fossil fuels by 456 institutions (Ibid.). It is recognised across the world that global temperatures must remain no more than 2°C higher than in pre-industrial times if climate change is not to destroy our entire way of life (Ibid.). For this to happen, study after study has demonstrated that 80% of currently known fossil fuel reserves must remain in the ground (Ibid.). This view is endorsed by mainstream elements of society, from Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, to the United Nations. Companies like BP and Shell – and the University’s investments in them—are not part of a sustainable future, no matter how they, or the University, might pretend otherwise. Small investments in renewables are far outweighed by the catastrophic impacts of continued oil extraction. In universities around this country and the world, divestment is denying these companies their moral acceptability – Cambridge needs to catch up. In the University’s “Dear World...” Campaign, it has positioned itself as the driving force for a better future. If it wants anyone to respect that, it needs to demonstrate moral leadership and distance itself from the fossil fuel industry. Fortunately, the working group on investment recently set up by the University presents the perfect opportunity, just a month before the historic climate summit in Paris. All moral and financial arguments point to the same thing – divestment from fossil fuels. References: (1) People and Planet (2013). Knowledge and Power: Fossil Free Universities Report. https://peopleandplanet.org/dl/fossil-free/knowledge-power-report.pdf

Climate change is accelerating at unpredictable rates; this necessitates direct and collective radical action. We are witnessing the increasing impacts of a warming planet more and more consistently; in this last year alone our country experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. We just witnessed one of the strongest Superstorms in recorded history. Experts agree that global warming caused by humans burning fossil fuels will continue to accelerate and intensify these tragic climate disasters. The scientific consensus is clear and overwhelming; we cannot safely burn even half of global fossil-fuel reserves without dangerously warming the planet for several thousand years. It is time for Clark University, in solidarity with WPI and WSU, to join the divestment community, and extend this to the regional community at large. To remain inundated and feebly committed is to accept the certain death of the entire global community. It's time for Clark to take a stand and truly, radically, (not under presumed false guise) assist in challenging convention and changing the world.