Out of all 154 universities in the UK, 78 of them joined a campaign to demolish big oil’s ‘social license.’ That’s half of all the universities breaking the ongoing approval and acceptance of using fossil fuels! The divestment campaign they’ve signed up for requires that each university pledge to divest hundreds of millions from the fossil fuel industry.
Some of the universities have divested from all fossil fuels, while others have only withdrawn from certain ones – such as coal or tar sands. Campaigners are hailing this as a perfect way to accelerate the process of delegitimization of the dirty industry.
With so many institutions joining this campaign, excluding the industry from them has become “a mainstream and majority position,” according to Chris Saltmarsh from the campaign group People & Planet. The universities that hold out against divestment will one day be harshly judged by history.
Saltmarsh said:
That universities across the sector are now divesting so fully and quickly demonstrates how far the fossil fuel industry’s social license has been eroded over the last seven years. It is increasingly common sense on UK campuses that these companies can play no productive role in solving the climate crisis.
Universities not yet divested can now choose to stand with their students on the right side of history or be forever known as complicit in the crimes of climate breakdown.
The trend for major academic institutions to pledge complete divestment started in the past year. York University and University College London are among those in the campaign. However, not all major universities have, for example, Cambridge isn’t severing its ties to the fossil fuel industry.
Hopefully, the remaining half of the universities that haven’t divested yet will change their minds because the world is suffering in the hands of the dirty fossil fuel industry. Saltmarsh said:
Wildfires are wreaking destruction across Australia, the Amazon and beyond while fossil fuel companies profit from the extraction to blame for this devastation. Excluding this industry from our universities is now a mainstream and majority position.
Just 20 fossil fuel giants are linked to a third of all greenhouse gas emissions. That’s less than two dozen companies fueling the climate crisis for the entire planet! As awareness of the industry’s massive role in climate change grows, we can only hope it will inspire more institutions and companies to campaign against them once and for all.
