It’s Friday, March 6, and Brown University just divested from fossil fuels.
To divest or not to divest? That is the question many American universities are being forced to contend with, thanks to pressure from climate-conscious students. Those pupils say divestment — cutting financial ties with companies connected to the fossil fuel extraction industry — is the only answer for schools that care about the wellbeing of their students.
Earlier this week, Brown University President Christina Paxson announced that the university had sold off 90 percent of its investments in fossil fuels, a process that began nearly two years ago. Paxson said Brown plans to liquidate the remaining 10 percent. “We do not plan to make new investments in fossil fuel companies unless and until they make significant progress in converting themselves into providers of sustainable energy,” Paxson wrote in a letter to students.
Divestment is one part of Brown’s climate plan. It also aims to slash campus greenhouse gas emissions 75 percent by 2025 and go net-zero by 2040. To achieve those emissions reductions, Brown is buying renewable power from a wind turbine project in Texas and a solar farm in Rhode Island. New buildings on campus are being designed to be “net-zero ready,” Paxson said, and existing infrastructure is getting retrofitted to be energy-efficient.
Brown’s endowment was about $4.2 billion at the close of the last fiscal year, a drop in the oil barrel when it comes to U.S. investments.. But that’s not really the point. Brown is sending a signal to educational and financial institutions across the country. Already, schools like Middlebury and the entire University of California school system have announced plans to drop their fossil-fueled investments. Maybe Brown’s announcement will have a domino effect in the Ivy League.
The Smog
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