Over half of UK universities committed to divesting from fossil fuels

78 of the 154 universities in the UK have committed to divesting from fossil fuels.

The commitment means that universities are either divesting or pledging to divest hundreds of millions from the fossil fuel market.

Campaigners have described this development as a considerable blow to the “social licence” of fossil fuel.

Chris Saltmarsh from the student-based climate campaign group People & Planet said excluding the industry from universities was now “a mainstream and majority position”.

“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.”

Mr Saltmarsh believes that universities that fail to divest will be condemned by history.

“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.”

A number of universities including University College of London (UCL) and the University of York have pledged to completely divest.

These developments were established after a wave of student and staff campaigns in 2019 which inflicted considerable pressure on the universities to divest.

Students from the University of Oxford blockaded a local hotel in October 2019 after fossil fuel giant, Glencore attempted to hold a graduate recruitment event.

Following a two year campaign led by Fossil Free Warwick, the University of Warwick divested from fossil fuels in July 2015.

The University of Cambridge continues to face student and staff campaigns over the university’s connections to the fossil fuel industry.

These campaigns have resulted in fossil fuel company events at the universities receiving low attendance, cancelled or being online.

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

– Chris Saltmarsh, People & Planet

Graduate recruitment has slowed significantly, with records being the lowest since records began in 2012.

Oil and gas companies have faced increasing pressure to improve a growing skills gap that is already damaging their productivity, claims Bloomberg.

An investigation last year by The Guardian revealed that just 20 fossil fuel giants are connected to a third of all greenhouse gas emissions driving the climate crisis.