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March 5, 2020

On Wednesday, Brown University President Christina Paxson presented an update on sustainability efforts at Brown University. In an open letter, Paxson followed up on the 2019 four-phase energy efficiency strategy to reduce Brown’s environmental footprint, announcing in the letter that Brown’s endowment had also sold off about 90 percent of its fossil fuel holdings as …

February 26, 2020

A new editorial in the Boston College student newspaper, The Heights, calls on the college to divest, running in contradiction to the many on-campus and nearby voices that say no to this costly, ineffective effort. For starters, leadership at Boston College has made it clear they have no plans on moving divestment forward. “Boston College …

February 24, 2020

In the New York Times this week, a Harvard student, Wesley Donhauser, lays out exactly why divestment is a false solution for universities and endowments. In his words, divestment is a purely a distraction from real solutions: “While I share Ms. Lockwood’s concerns about climate change, divestment is little more than financial theater. Even at …

February 21, 2020

Board says divestment would NOT “generate tangible and positive change” towards climate goals. The Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees for Northwestern University has rejected Fossil Free Northwestern’s (FFN) divestment proposal which called for the University to divest its endowment from any holdings in the top 100 coal and oil and gas companies, reports …

February 21, 2020

Yale’s Chief Investment Officer David Swensen sent a letter this week updating the university community on the endowment’s approach to addressing and accounting for climate change, ultimately standing firm against divesting the endowment from fossil fuels. Instead, Yale will take a thoughtful approach to screening investments and will look for opportunities to engage in real …

February 20, 2020

Despite an uptick in divestment activity at select college campuses this week, new voices have emerged in opposition to this costly empty gesture. Here’s a recap of what folks are saying in opposition to divestment this week. First we travel across the pond. After students in the UK tore up the front lawn of Trinity …

February 19, 2020

As the debate over divestment continues, a Letter to the Editor in the Cornell Sun from a class of 2020 student lays out why divestment is exactly the wrong move for the university. As it states, “Divestment would harm Cornell, reduce its influence and, most significantly, do absolutely nothing to fight climate change.” From the …

February 18, 2020

Students and activists staged several demonstrations in Ithaca, NY last week to pressure Cornell’s Board of Trustees into divestment from fossil fuels. With dramatic flair borrowed from divestment movement founder Bill McKibben, Climate Justice Cornell (CJC) protestors staged a mock wedding between the university and the fossil fuel industry, blocked traffic for several hours and …

February 7, 2020

Georgetown University’s board of directors announced the school will not make any new investments in fossil fuels and will remove funds already invested in the industry by 2030, the announcement notes. This is not the first time Georgetown has dabbled with divestment. Back in 2015, it announced it would divest but only in very select …

January 21, 2020

One year ago, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and Comptroller Scott Stringer announced the city would begin the process of examining divestment among New York City’s five pensions. Twelve months after the lackluster announcement, city leaders again cheered themselves as taking a “major step” forward: selecting the advisers it will utilize to evaluate …

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