1. Immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies;
2. Divest within five years from direct ownership in and from any managed funds that include fossil-fuel companies;
3. Commit to full disclosure of the carbon exposure of its investments and provide regular public reports of its progress towards 1 and 2.
Why is this important?
Climate change is accelerating. 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 wild fires which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. 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.
As public pressure to confront climate change builds, we call on the University of Western Australia to immediately freeze any new investment in fossil-fuel companies, and to divest within five years from direct ownership and from any commingled funds that include fossil-fuel public equities and corporate bonds.
We believe such action on behalf of the University of Western Australia will be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio because it is financially (and morally) unjustified to invest in assets that will become stranded and guarantee dangerous climate change. In addition it is unconscionable to pay for our education with investments that will condemn both the planet to climate disaster and current and future graduating classes to a future defined by climate chaos.
For the good of our students and our nation, and to preserve the quality of life for this and future generations worldwide, we call upon you to join a growing movement of schools around the country that are committed to preventing a more extreme climate by moving the University of Western Australia endowment beyond fossil fuels.
