Edinburgh University divests from all fossil fuels

Source: The Guardian

The University of Edinburgh is dumping all its fossil fuel investments, making it the largest UK university endowment fund to be completely free of all coal, oil and gas holdings.

The decision was announced on Monday and followed a long student campaign. More than 60 UK universities have now divested from fossil fuels, with the University of Sussex the latest to make the move.

Most existing fossil fuel reserves cannot be burned without causing dangerous climate change, and proponents of divestment argue this makes fossil fuel companies bad investments on both ethical and financial grounds. The risk to investments is taken seriously at the highest level, including the Bank of England, World Bank and the G20’s financial stability board, and many major investment firms have also divested.

The University of Edinburgh decided in 2015 to divest from the most polluting companies – those involved in coal and tar sands – but stopped short of full divestment. But now the university will sell its final £6.3m of fossil fuel holdings, in the companies Total, BG Group and Atlas Copco.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/feb/06/edinburgh-university-divests-from-all-fossil-fuels?CMP=twt_gu