Columbia Divest for Climate Justice responded to President Bollinger’s statement on divestment via email to the Columbia community “calling on the Board of Trustees to enact an immediate freeze on all new investments in fossil fuels and to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies.”
The group’s statement acknowledged that the Advisory Committee on Socially Responsible Investing (ACSRI) was interested in Columbia’s partial divestment, but affirmed that Columbia Divest for Climate Justice’s goal was one of full divestment, stating that “the university must do all in its power to reject an immoral industry, whose business model requires a level of fossil fuel extraction that is inconsistent with meeting global climate targets.”
Columbia University has already withdrawn funding to Soco International and Mongolia Yitai, two “top 200 fossil fuel companies,” but Columbia Divest for Climate Justice continues to urge President Bollinger to “make firm commitments to divest our direct and indirect holdings from all 200 companies before the 2015 climate negotiations in Paris.”
The statement emphasized action rather than deliberation, noting that Columbia’s administration has been aware of the “crisis” since 2012, and now, in 2015, needs to “respond with the urgency that the climate crisis demands.”
Read the full statement below.
We appreciate President Bollinger’s recent statement on divestment, particularly his endorsement of the ACSRI’s recommendation for divestment from private prisons. Advocating for social and racial justice should be one of Columbia’s highest priorities, and we applaud Columbia Prison Divest for working tirelessly to divest our university’s holdings from the racist and highly unjust private prison industry.
As President Bollinger noted, climate change is “one of the most important issues of our time,” and we call upon the ACSRI to pursue their “ongoing deliberations” at a speed that matches the urgency of this issue. After years of meeting with the ACSRI, Columbia Divest for Climate Justice will meet with the Board of Trustees for the first time this June to present the urgent case for fossil fuel divestment.
We are calling on the Board of Trustees to enact an immediate freeze on all new investments in fossil fuels and to divest from the top 200 fossil fuel companies. Although the ACSRI has expressed interest in recommending partial divestment, Columbia Divest for Climate Justice continues to advocate for full divestment because we believe that the university must do all in its power to reject an immoral industry, whose business model requires a level of fossil fuel extraction that is inconsistent with meeting global climate targets.
Earlier this year, the university decided to withdraw its direct investments from Soco International and Inner Mongolia Yitai. While we are glad that our direct holdings are no longer funding two of the top 200 fossil fuel companies, we ask that Columbia University and President Bollinger make firm commitments to divest our direct and indirect holdings from all 200 companies before the 2015 climate negotiations in Paris.
We have been communicating the urgency of this crisis to the administration since 2012—the time for deliberation is over. As the global movement for fossil fuel divestment continues to accelerate, we call upon Columbia University and the Board of Trustees to take decisive action and respond with the urgency that the climate crisis demands.
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