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Colleges & Universities

  • DIVEST ALL U of WISCONSIN Universities!
    Climate change is accelerating. On top of the increasingly severe weather patterns and seasons, we see a very disproportionate effect on deindustrialized rural communities, indigenous communities, and communities of low-income housing. These communities experience significant health risks due to the pollution of the fossil fuel industry. Social class, race, and the community you live in should not affect whether you have clean water to drink and air to breathe. The time to divest for the planet and for the people is now.
    1 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Mari Belina
  • Fossil Free ISU - Divest Illinois State
    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 hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50 billion in damages. 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.
    9 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Jake Breit
  • Divest Birkbeck
    Investment in fossil fuel industries drives fossil fuel consumption and its negative social and environmental impacts. Burning coal, oil, and gas releases CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, both warming and polluting the planet. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), if the status quo continues the planet could warm by almost 5oC by 2100. This would have a catastrophic impact on human life. It would turn our planet into one not “similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted”, as James Hansen, a top climate scientist at NASA put it. The second reason is that investment in these companies gives implicit support to their activities. It is a matter of social justice and duty that the University withdraw its financial support for companies that actively contribute to global warming, the burden of which is being felt disproportionately by the world’s poorest countries, who are contributing least to climate change. Not only does this exacerbate global poverty it perpetuates further social inequality between the global south and the global north. Divestment from fossil fuel firms will help remove fossil fuel companies’ social license to exploit the world's most impoverished nations. The third reason is that investment in fossil fuel companies is illogical when set against the University’s environmental priorities. The university is pledging to reduce carbon emissions and embed sustainability into their business model and culture of institutions. It intends to be fully compliant with environmental legislation and promote environmental responsibility. On this basis and in light of the Paris agreement that includes averting irreversible damage to the ecosystems, all planetary life and livelihoods. Besides its dangers, there are strong financial arguments for divestment. As the BP oil spill illustrated, fossil fuel companies operate in risky contexts that can not only damage environments and communities, but also shareholder value. Fossil fuel companies are at the mercy of regulations aimed at preventing climate change. Recent research has shown that, if regulators are serious about preventing climate change, a third of global oil reserves, half of all gas reserves, and over 80% of coal reserves will have to remain unburned to limit global warming to 2ºC. This means fossil fuel firms would have to massively write down the value of assets on their balance sheets, leading to huge and sustained destruction in shareholder value. By divesting from fossil fuels, the University will join a long list of respected institutions already committed to going fossil free, including Stanford University, Glasgow University, Oxford CIty Council, the World Council of Churches, and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The global divestment campaign is growing, and together we can make a statement about how we want our future to look. We urge all students, alumni, staff and members of the public to sign the petition to support an end to social and environmental devastation.
    262 of 300 Signatures
    Created by Suzanne Henry
  • Divest UNC system from Fossil Fuels
    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 hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Matthew alone is estimated to create $25 to $70 billion in damages. 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. Let's keep it in the ground or at least stop investing in companies that extract it!
    10 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Katherine Dennett
  • Texas State - Let's Go Fossil Free!
    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 hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50 billion in damages. 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.
    4 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Michelle Brown
  • Go Fossil Free!
    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 hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50 billion in damages. 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.
    2 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Divest UNBSTU
  • Divest URI
    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 hurricanes, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost our country hundreds of billions of dollars. Hurricane Sandy alone caused $50 billion in damages. 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.
    11 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Sunrise South County
  • University of Dundee: DIVEST FROM FOSSIL FUELS
    Dundee University’s environmental and sustainability policy statement lists using “resources efficiently to minimise our impact on the environment” among its responsibilities, and divesting from fossil fuels could certainly reduce our negative effects. While fossil fuels are limited and damaging to the environment, investing in more green industries could aid the UK in producing more sustainable energy and more viable long-term investments. The fact that anthropogenic global warming is occurring is supported by a huge number of scientific communities, and continued use of fossil fuels will exacerbate the problem. By 2011, methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide content in the air had already increased by 150%, 40%, and 20% respectively since 1750. The temperature of the oceans has increased by about 0.72 degrees centigrade between 1951 and 2012. While research in the University is producing exciting sustainable possibilities that may help us stop this increase, we feel that its investments should also reflect that intent.
    528 of 600 Signatures
    Created by Dundee People & Planet Picture
  • Petition to Divest Case Western Reserve University From Fossil Fuels
    Humanity is at a precipice. In October 2018, the United Nations International Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) stipulated that humanity would have to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. The science is clear that institutions must play a role in the mass effort to avoid climate catastrophe. The 2017 Carbon Majors Report found that just 100 fossil fuel companies have been responsible for 71% of global emissions since 1988. If we are to avoid the least catastrophic side effects of increased global temperature, which include droughts, floods, and famines increasing in both frequency and severity the longer we fail to act, “the world would have to leave two-thirds of its fossil fuel reserves unexploited” As a result, it is downright abhorrent to continue harboring any connection to an industry that bears significant responsibility for the crisis that disproportionately harms low-income, and minority communities, in addition to threatening the future of each and every human being. Specifically in regards to the Cleveland community, our region has been detrimentally impacted by heightened droughts and floods—the results of which reverberate through agriculture and infrastructure development, contributing to widespread, systemic, environmental racism. CWRU’s $1.87 billion endowment currently has an undisclosed exposure to fossil fuels, an industry that has led an attack on science and climate crimes against humanity. The destruction perpetuated by the fossil fuel industry is not accidental. The Climate Deception Dossiers, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists, contains over 300 pages worth of documents and internal memos from fossil fuel companies that display a deep understanding of potential implications as far back as the 1980s. Even more unforgivable is the evidence of “forged letters to Congress, secret funding of a supposedly independent scientist, the creation of fake grassroots organizations, multiple efforts to deliberately manufacture uncertainty about climate science and more.” CWRU cannot credibly claim to be an institution that promotes scientific inquiry and academic integrity, nor can it continue to assert that the university holds self-stated core values such as “academic freedom and responsibility,” “ethical behavior” and an “emphasis on sustainability” while continuing to invest in publicly traded fossil fuel companies. There is undeniable evidence that fossil fuels have been and will continue to be an increasingly imprudent investment. As shown in the report written by American University’s Student Government Financial Research Office, which led to the university’s subsequent divestment several months ago, “indices without fossil fuel investments perform better than those with such investments...fossil free investments have practically identical, often lesser, volatility as compared to their traditional counterparts, speaking to their sustainability.” The report continues with the evidence that divestment does not impair an investment portfolio, stating that “portfolios that divest from fossil fuels and utilities and invest in clean energy perform better than those with fossil fuels and utilities.” Finally, the report explains how investing in fossil fuels is, contrary to popular belief, an extraordinarily high-risk endeavor. These risks arise from a number of sources: global policy changes aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; evolving technology which has the potential to undermine the success of fossil fuels, exemplified by the prediction that “LED lighting will reduce electricity consumption for lighting by 40 percent between 2013 and 2030”; and the potential for fossil fuels to become “stranded assets” through various pressures which will render them liabilities. All these factors contribute to the estimate that average annual returns may fall up to 74% and 63% in the coal and oil subsectors, respectively. Fossil fuel divestment is not only a decision which is morally right, but one which is also realistic and financially sound. On April 22, American University announced that although they had “had no direct investments in fossil fuel funds for several years,” they [had] divested all of its public fossil fuel investments from its endowment. In AU’s case, much of the fossil fuel exposure was “concentrated entirely in commingled funds.” However, in what CWRU might call “Thinking Beyond the Possible™ ,” over just several months, AU’s Board of Trustees eliminated the remaining $12.9 million of fossil fuel exposure within the public endowment portfolio by selling “$350 million in commingled and index funds, with the proceeds reinvested in investments that do not include any fossil fuel holdings.” Institutions such as American University, in addition to the University of Hawaii and Pratt Institute, have set the gold standard for complete divestment by showing not only, that it is realistic with both financially and socially responsible leadership, but also that joining these few universities gives CWRU the opportunity to establish itself as a leader in combating the climate crisis. Continuing to ignore calls for divestment will undeniably stake the university, members of the board of trustees, and administrators sides in history as complicit in the continuing irreversible harm to the Cleveland community, and humanity as a whole.
    403 of 500 Signatures
    Created by Jack Turner
  • University of Nebraska - Divest from Fossil Fuels!
    Climate change is one of the most imperative issues of this generation. The Natural Resources Defense Council contends that climate change will cost nearly $1.9 trillion annually if forced to go unchecked. This is an imperative issue that has led to loss of life and property all around the world, including here in Nebraska. In 2019, large floods led to the loss of three lives and threatened the livelihoods of thousands. The total cost of these floods were nearly $3 billion dollars, dealing a large blow to our state. As the climate crisis continues, it is more important than ever that the University takes an active role in helping prevent the issue. Climate change continues to lead to extreme weather events and cause disruption in too many lives. The University of Nebraska should follow the lead of the Association of Big Ten Students and divest from fossil fuels.
    36 of 100 Signatures
    Created by Rohan Thakker