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The University of Ottawa Board of Governors voted Monday to try to ‘shift’ the school’s investments in fossil fuel industries, but stopped short of full divestment as many campus activists had pushed it to do.
“We are reducing the carbon footprint of our entire investment portfolio by at least 30 per cent by 2030 – in line with Canada’s national climate commitment,” chairman Robert Giroux said in a statement released Monday evening. “This will reduce far more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than divesting from fossil fuel companies. Solving this problem will require reducing carbon emissions across the whole economy.”
But the Board of Governors did agree to have its Finance and Treasury Committee “develop a strategy to shift” the school’s fossil fuel-related investments toward new technologies in clean and renewable energies. The committee is to report annually to the board on its progress.
The school will also establish a $3-million Clean Innovation Research Fund and commit $10 million of its investments to seed capital for green technology.
The carbon reductions are in keeping with the university’s signing of the Montreal Carbon Pledge — last November it became the first university in Canada to do so — and the findings of an 18-month independent report the board commissioned on the pros and cons of fossil fuel divestment.
Full divestment had been the goal of the group Fossil Free uOttawa and in October a group of 90 present and retired professors signed an open letter to university president Allan Rock demanding the university divest its endowment and pension funds from fossil fuel investments.
“By remaining invested in the industry, the University indicates that it supports the continued extraction and development of fossil fuels and the climatic and other environmental consequences these entail,” the letter said.
“A public institution like the University of Ottawa, dedicated to elevating the lives of young people, should not simultaneously invest in the destruction of their future.”
Critics of divestment call the tactic a “blunt instrument” and one that robs the university of having any voice in the way fossil fuel companies are run. Better to work to reduce the demand for oil and to encourage cleaner, green technologies, they say.
Nevertheless, organizers with Fossil Free uOttawa were claiming victory Monday night.
“uOttawa has made a smart financial and ethical decision that will make a real difference in the fight against climate change,” Geoff Carter, an organizer with the group, said in a statement. “Today I’m proud to be a University of Ottawa student.”
The groups says it intends to continue to push the Board of Governors “to commit to a clear timeline for divestment and further concrete action on climate change.”
Last month, the University of Toronto rejected divestment. Divestment motions have also been voted down at McGill University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary.
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“We are reducing the carbon footprint of our entire investment portfolio by at least 30 per cent by 2030 – in line with Canada’s national climate commitment,” chairman Robert Giroux said in a statement released Monday evening. “This will reduce far more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than divesting from fossil fuel companies. Solving this problem will require reducing carbon emissions across the whole economy.”
But the Board of Governors did agree to have its Finance and Treasury Committee “develop a strategy to shift” the school’s fossil fuel-related investments toward new technologies in clean and renewable energies. The committee is to report annually to the board on its progress.
The school will also establish a $3-million Clean Innovation Research Fund and commit $10 million of its investments to seed capital for green technology.
The carbon reductions are in keeping with the university’s signing of the Montreal Carbon Pledge — last November it became the first university in Canada to do so — and the findings of an 18-month independent report the board commissioned on the pros and cons of fossil fuel divestment.
Full divestment had been the goal of the group Fossil Free uOttawa and in October a group of 90 present and retired professors signed an open letter to university president Allan Rock demanding the university divest its endowment and pension funds from fossil fuel investments.
“By remaining invested in the industry, the University indicates that it supports the continued extraction and development of fossil fuels and the climatic and other environmental consequences these entail,” the letter said.
“A public institution like the University of Ottawa, dedicated to elevating the lives of young people, should not simultaneously invest in the destruction of their future.”
Critics of divestment call the tactic a “blunt instrument” and one that robs the university of having any voice in the way fossil fuel companies are run. Better to work to reduce the demand for oil and to encourage cleaner, green technologies, they say.
Nevertheless, organizers with Fossil Free uOttawa were claiming victory Monday night.
“uOttawa has made a smart financial and ethical decision that will make a real difference in the fight against climate change,” Geoff Carter, an organizer with the group, said in a statement. “Today I’m proud to be a University of Ottawa student.”
The groups says it intends to continue to push the Board of Governors “to commit to a clear timeline for divestment and further concrete action on climate change.”
Last month, the University of Toronto rejected divestment. Divestment motions have also been voted down at McGill University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary.
查看原文...
