1,000 signatures reached
To: University Board
Trinity College, University of Dublin, Fossil Fuel Divestment
We call on Trinity College and its subsidiaries to immediately freeze any new investments 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
Why is this important?
80% of current fuel reserves must stay unburned to have a significant probability of staying below the 2 degree limit of warming. However the markets place a multi trillion dollar value on this unburnable carbon reserve. Therefore, assuming effective legislation, to curb emissions and prevent catastrophic global warming, is introduced, this trillion dollar carbon bubble will burst. This means anyone who has investments in fossil fuel companies will suffer huge devaluation. Furthermore, actively investing money in the fossil fuel industry is effectively betting that we will not act to save the planet. This is an incredibly cynical position to take, one which hampers efforts to protect the climate and puts investors at risk of huge losses.
As such, we believe divestment will not only be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, but also for the well being of its current and future graduating classes, who deserve the opportunity to graduate with a future not defined by climate chaos.