By Ashley Mussbacher (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: March 19, 2014
Students from universities across Canada, Europe, and the US are protesting against academic institutions investing in fossil fuel companies.
The University of Victoria Students’ Society (UVSS) released a statement on February 5 saying students are demanding UVic divest from fossil fuels.
“The UVSS is calling on the university to put its investments toward supporting a new, sustainable, clean, and just future,” UVSS chairperson Kelsey Mech is quoted saying.
The release notes the UVSS board of directors passed a motion calling for UVic to “immediately freeze any new investments in fossil fuels and commit to creating a three-year plan to divest all remaining shares in the industry.”
Taryn Brownell, News editor of UVic’s Martlet, has been following the story on the island campus. She explains divestment is high on the list of topics that were brought up at the UVSS election.
“Newly elected chairperson of the UVSS (Kayleigh Erickson) stated during the election period that she wanted to see a referendum on the topic of divestment so that students would have a say on the topic,” Brownell says.
In an interview conducted by the Martlet, Erickson explained that her reason for wanting to make it more than a board vote stems from the effects divestment will have on student scholarships. Since scholarships are tied to the university’s investment income, freezing assets could negatively affect them.
“There’s always a chance that scholarships and bursaries will be affected and, being a student who has a scholarship, that’s not a risk I’m willing to take.”
Divestment, as a political and economic strategy, has proved popular and successful in the past. In 1986, Harvard University divested roughly $157 million in South African-related stocks during the apartheid era, and in 1990 universities pulled funds from tobacco companies while boosting anti-smoking campaigns.
But James Engell, a Harvard University professor, notes in The Huffington Post there is a difference between those examples and the divestment movement today against fossil fuels.
“Those who believed that the university should not divest its tobacco holdings could at least make the (weak) argument that smokers have some choice. But that is not the case with those affected by climate change — there is no choice, no place to escape, no ‘climate-change free zone.’”
Companies like Chevron, Exxon Mobil, and Lukoil are just a few of the 200 titles benefitting from stock shareholders, and are some of the largest producers of carbon dioxide — a fact that is not being ignored.
Students at Edinburgh University handed a petition with 1480 signatures to the principal to divest in “dirty” companies. The Guardian reports that universities in Edinburgh and Glasgow have “agreed to consider their investments in oil and gas funds.”
Another article in The Guardian notes 10 Oxford University common rooms have passed motions mandating that “each college’s junior and middle common room [push] the university for full fossil fuel divestment.”
The divestment movement is organized by 350.org, a site dedicated to global grassroots movements. The name is described as being the goal the site strives for.
“The number 350 means climate safety: to preserve a liveable planet, scientists tell us we must reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere from its current level of 400 parts per million to below 350 ppm.”
Patrick Harrison, a member of GreenSpeak and biology professor at UFV, notes the effects fossil fuels have on the environment.
“The effects of CO2 on climate change [are] well supported, so we need to be careful what we do and the amount of CO2 we put into the atmosphere,” he says. “We are at an all-time high, and we need to be careful that we don’t create a greenhouse effect. We’ve boxed ourselves in; our economy is carbon-based.”
According to We Are Power Shift, a website that connects members of the climate movement, “divestment can be a profound step when an investor decides to make a statement by withdrawing financial support from a corporation that is abusing the environment, the community, or larger society.”
While some schools have announced plans to stop investing in fossil fuels, Victor Luckerson, writing for Time, says that, “large universities with billion-dollar endowments have said they won’t alter their investment strategies.”
In his article, Engell says Harvard plans to remain invested.
“The Harvard Corporation has a strong presumption against divestment, as it should. Otherwise every cause and political debate would exert leverage over investments of an institution that rightly tries to avoid political stances, except, perhaps, on matters such as affirmative action.”
Dean of Harvard Drew Faust wrote an open letter regarding student activities, responding to their call for Harvard to divest.
“[While I share] their belief in the importance of addressing climate change, I do not believe, nor do my colleagues on the Corporation, that university divestment from the fossil fuel industry is warranted or wise.
“[I find a] troubling inconsistency in the notion that, as an investor, we should boycott a whole class of companies at the same time that, as individuals and as a community, we are extensively relying on those companies’ products and services for so much of what we do every day.”
Faust also added that pulling investments from companies we are so dependent on would come “at a substantial economic cost.”
Despite the debate to divest, Geoffry Morgan reports in Alberta Oil that fossil fuel companies are not threatened.
“Perhaps part of the reason the energy industry hasn’t been alarmed by 350.org is because executives don’t perceive it as a credible financial threat. Martin Molyneaux, the vice-chairman of FirstEnergy Capital, says the kind of mass divestiture 350.org envisions would not limit energy companies’ access to capital.”
An open letter sent to student activists from We Are Power Shift suggests that divestment in fossil fuels may only need to be symbolic to be successful.
“Institutions of learning must challenge systems that endanger the future of younger generations. We believe that colleges and universities divesting from fossil fuels and reinvesting in clean energy will deliver a powerful political message,” it reads.
Chief financial officer Jackie Hogan says UFV holds endowments of approximately $9.2 million, where roughly 8.5 per cent is invested in the energy sector, which is comprised of various fossil fuel companies.
Hogan explains UFV’s finances are separated into two categories: an operating fund income and an endowment income. The endowment income is restricted to the purposes of endowment, which is outlined in UFV’s investment policy:
“The primary investment objectives of Endowment Funds are to preserve and maintain the purchasing power of the endowment capital and to meet the annual cash flow obligations of the Fund.”
UFV is aware of the divestment movement. Hogan explains that while there is currently no restriction on investing in fossil fuel companies, the topic is on the agenda for the upcoming finance meeting.
