The Students for a Just and Stable Future of Harvard University initiated a campaign in September that calls for a divestment of Harvard’s endowment from the top 200 publicly-traded fossil fuel corporations. Supported by the Better Future Project and 350.org, Divest Harvard is the first Harvard student group in over half a decade that has gained enough signatures to qualify a referendum question for the student government elections and make fossil fuel divestment an official position of the Harvard College Undergraduate Council. Divest Harvard co-coordinator, Chloe Maxmin, noted with an eye-opening comparison that “in 1990, 52% of voting students supported complete divestment from apartheid South Africa. Today 72% of voting students are raising their voices for fossil divestment, telling Harvard to stop investing in companies that are threatening our future”.
The fossil fuel divestment movement has spread to over 50 other universities and colleges in the United States. This movement aims to stigmatize fossil fuels and discourage the reliance on energy sources that contribute to climate change. Universities and colleges are the breeding grounds and hubs for innovations, and thus the fossil fuel divestment movement calls for these institutions to be leaders in enabling the necessary innovations for a clean energy future.
Click here to learn more on fossil divestment campaigns and the movement.