Eyes are turning towards York after developments at the University of Toronto regarding fossil fuel divestment.
Toronto350, part of the 350.org international environmental movement, had brought forth a petition to divest from fossil fuels to the Office of the President on March 6, 2014. The petition requested UofT to stop all investments in the fossil fuel industry within five years.
To review the petition, an Advisory Committee on Divestment from Fossil Fuels was created by UofT President Meric Gertler. On December 15, the committee submitted a report to President Gertler.
The report suggests UofT divest from specific fossil fuel companies which disregard the 1.5 degree threshold, and undermine the international effort to slow growing global temperatures.
“I will conduct some due diligence as appropriate, a process I expect will take several weeks and I will respond to the report sometime in the new year” stated President Gertler in a note regarding the report.
The developments at UofT have caught the attention of the York community.
“The committee’s recommendation at UofT is very important to the fossil fuel divestment movement in Canada,” says Jennifer Mills of Fossil Free York.
“It’s the biggest commitment we’ve seen by a Canadian university. It’s also significant that the committee recognized that sometimes divestment is the only answer when companies are causing such damage and lobbying against responsible climate policies.”
York is not looking to divest from the fossil fuel industry under their current policy.
York University works with investment managers rather than choosing individual stocks. This approach to investment is considered best practice by the Social Investment Organization and the Coalition of Universities for Responsible Investing.
“It does not recommend the use of negative screening or divesting from particular companies,” says Trudy Pound-Curtis, assistant vice-president finance and chief finance officer.
Mills responded with the following regarding York and fossil fuels divestment:
“We’d prefer to see across the board divestment from fossil fuel companies at York and other universities. Hopefully, UofT will divest from most, if not all, of their fossil fuel holdings. It’s not a few bad apples, it’s the industry’s business model that’s fueling climate change. That’s especially relevant at York where the endowment fund is also invested in smaller fracking companies. We’re asking York’s endowment funds to first divest from the largest oil and coal companies and eventually from all fossil fuel and pipeline companies.”
“It would be amazing to have Toronto universities together lead the way in Canada,” she adds.
Tahseen Mia, Contributor
Featured image courtesy of Les Stone of Corbis
