Edinburgh, UK
— Today, the University of Edinburgh ignored calls from students, staff
and alumni to divest from fossil fuel companies, sparking accusations
of a conflict of interests within the university from students.
The
University of Edinburgh has the third largest university endowment in
the UK, after Oxford and Cambridge, totalling £291 million. It invests
approximately £9 million in fossil fuel companies including Total, Shell
and BHP Billiton.
The
decision was passed on Monday at a meeting of the University Court –
the highest decision-making body in the university – and goes against a
recommendation made in April by the university’s Central Management
Group to divest from coal and tar sands. [1] The refusal to divest has
provoked a strong backlash from student campaigners.
Kirsty Haigh, student campaigner with Edinburgh People & Planet,
said: “Despite the university’s public consultation showing
overwhelming support for fossil fuel divestment, the university has put
money before climate science. Heads of the School of Engineering, in the
pockets of the fossil fuel industry, have been scaremongering
throughout the process. Departments funded by the industry were
over-represented on the investment advisory committee, whilst some
schools had no representation whatsoever. Climate change is the most
urgent threat the world is facing, and today’s announcement tells us the
university is not taking it seriously enough,” she added.
Sixty-five
students in the School of Engineering have already signed an open
letter to the Head of the School, Prof. Hugh McCann, angered by his
public opposition to the fossil fuel divestment campaign. Their letter
stated: “The School of Engineering has and will continue to have a
pivotal role in the university’s future. It is after all engineers who
will be on the frontlines of the transition to a low carbon society. By
basing its argument against divestment on engineering students’ chances
of employment in one dead-end industry, the school appears to be failing
to prepare its students for careers in the rapidly changing energy
markets of the 21st century, whilst neglecting the faculty’s broader
responsibility to the student body as a whole. As a consequence, they
gamble employment against our common future.” [3]
Information
obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests have revealed
that the Geosciences Department has received funding from a range of
fossil fuel companies over the past 10 years including BP, Shell and
ConocoPhillips, including grants and gifts of money from Total and Cairn
Energy. An FOI request from December 2013 revealed that 37 staff
members in the Geosciences Department were in direct correspondence with
fossil fuel company representatives, whilst Ian Main, the school
representative on the Fossil Fuel Advisory Committee which made
recommendations to the University Court on fossil fuel divestment, is
the ex-Total chair for mathematical geoscience.
The
Fossil Free campaign at Edinburgh has gathered widespread support from
across the community, with backing from over 50 university academics and
the Edinburgh University Students Association. The public consultation
run by the university showed overwhelming support for divestment from
the university community and thousands of students have signed up to the
campaign.
Over
the past 18 months, the People & Planet student network have
launched over 60 Fossil Free campaigns across the UK and gained the
support of both the Scotland and UK National Union of Students and over
32,000 individual students. Decisions on fossil fuel divestment are now
expected from Oxford University, the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine, Manchester University and Warwick University over the
coming weeks and months.
Fossil
Free is a global movement to push universities and other public
institutions to divest from the 200 fossil fuel companies that hold the
vast majority of the world’s oil, coal and gas reserves. The campaign
reflects a growing concern among British students about the dangers of
climate change and the investment risks associated with the so-called
carbon bubble which threatens to strand the £5.2 billion UK universities
collectively invest in fossil fuels; an investment in fossil fuels of
£2,083 for every student in the UK.
In
the UK, the University of Glasgow, the University of Bedfordshire, and
the University of London SOAS have all committed to divest, with an
international total of 28 universities moving their money out of fossil
fuels. In the US, Syracuse University and the New School in New York are
divesting from fossil fuels, whilst Stanford is divesting from coal.
More than 220 institutions have now made commitments to fossil fuel
divestment, including faith organisations, pension funds, philanthropic
foundations and local authorities.
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Photos
https://www.flickr.com/photos/
References
[1] University of Edinburgh statement: http://www.
[2] Open letter to School of Engineering by Engineering Students: https://campaigns.
Quotes
John Brookes, student campaigner and Masters of Nationalism Studies said:
“The university has cited academic freedom as one of its main reasons
for not divesting. How can a university which is funded by private
companies promote freedom of debate and expression? The close ties
between the School of Engineering and the fossil fuel industry
undermines all the climate and renewables research that the university
is doing.”
Miriam Wilson, Fossil Free Campaign Coordinator at People & Planet,
said: “By continuing to invest in fossil fuels, the University of
Edinburgh is putting short-term gains ahead of the long-term interests
of its students and the wider world, and undermining its image as a
forward-thinking institution which is leading in climate change
research. It is untenable for a university to bankroll an industry which
is driving the destruction of its students’ future.”
Friends of the Earth Scotland finance campaigner Ric Lander said:
“The University has missed a clear opportunity to take a moral lead on
tackling climate change and stand up for environmental justice. The
University appears content to have its money invested in the world’s
most polluting companies including Shell, BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.
These companies are oil drilling in the Arctic and mining coal in virgin
rainforest. Any investment policy which continues to allow investment
in such irresponsible companies is not fit for purpose.”
Luke Evens, Environmental Officer of Glasgow University Student’s Representative Council,
said: “Following Glasgow University’s decision to divest in October
2014, we have since learned that the decision has not affected any
funding to the university, in particular to the Engineering Department.
Despite criticism from a small number of personally invested academics,
the positive response across all colleges, including science and
engineering, was overwhelmingly encouraging. We are proud that the
academic community at Glasgow has united to tackle the threat of climate
change, and we call on Edinburgh University to do the same.”
Notes to editor
People
& Planet – Britain’s largest student network campaigning on
environmental justice and human rights coordinates the UK university
fossil fuel divestment movement. http://peopleandplanet.org/
UK
universities invest an estimated £5.2 billion annually in the fossil
fuel industry (Knowledge and Power, 2013). See a full list of all the
institutions that have divested. http://gofossilfree.org/
Information
on the growth of the divestment movement can be found in Measuring the
Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement (2014) by Arabella Advisors. http://www.arabellaadvisors.
More information on the Edinburgh University campaign so far can be found at their website. https://investethically.
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