Fossil Free Canada
1,000 signatures reached
To: President Andrew Petter and the SFU Board of Governors,
Simon Fraser University: Go Fossil Free!
We are calling on Simon Fraser University 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.
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 the US and Canada experienced record-breaking heat, droughts, and storms, which impacted hundreds of thousands of people and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. And the OECD warns that Metro Vancouver is the Canadian city most at risk from sea-level rise and other climate change-related threats.
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 Simon Fraser University 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. Divestment will be a sound decision for our institution’s financial portfolio, will demonstrate SFU's commitment to lead and engage the world, and will revoke the fossil fuel industry's social license to operate.