Edinburgh University held to account over divestment
Students have reacted with dismay at university decision
Students at the University of Edinburgh reacted with dismay to the news that the university had stopped short of divesting from fossil fuels.
The University of Edinburgh announced last week that it ‘has committed to a change of fossil fuel investment policy’. This means that it will not divest, but ‘will use its research activities and its responsible investment to work with companies to reduce their emissions’.
The 12 May announcement prompted a sit-in by students the following day. Participants occupied a university management building.
Eleanor Dow, student campaigner with Edinburgh University People & Planet, said: ‘Caveats on divestment are simply not good enough and are simply a way of delaying any decision even further.’
In 2013 Britain Yearly Meeting made the decision to divest from companies engaged in extracting fossil fuels. Many institutions and organisations across Britain are also beginning to divest. The University of Glasgow, SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) and the University of Bedfordshire have already withdrawn their funds from fossil fuels. The Quaker-founded Swarthmore College in the United States, however, recently announced that it does not plan to divest (see the Friend, 15 May). The University of Edinburgh continues to face questions over its investment policy. It has pledged to hold an arms review group in the summer. This will ‘review questions around investments in armaments companies’, a university spokesman confirmed.
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