AN anti-coal protester has been charged with trespass after climbing onto a building at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in Hobart.

Brodie Jeavons, 24, identified himself to police as representing the group Fossil Free Tasmania.

He had climbed onto the roof of the plant room of the Centenary Building, police said.

Police directed him to come down, he refused and was arrested without incident, police said.

“The man was charged with trespass and bailed to a later date,” a police statement said.

The protester had sat from 8am with his legs dangling over the 30m-high ledge of the building after unfurling and attaching a sign to the side of the building that read “Stop Funding Coal”.

Tasmania Police removed the protester from the building via the internal lift at about 11.50am.

His action was part of an ongoing eight-day sit-in by the group Fossil Free UTAS.

They had been occupying the Vice-Chancellors office foyer calling for UTAS to divest from its estimated $30 million fossil fuel investment portfolio.

Group spokeswoman Mel Jones said the protest was aimed at getting UTAS to commit to divest before a Paris climate summit next month.

UTAS chief operating officer David Clerk said: ”The latest action by a protester atop the central column of the Centenary Building is considered dangerous and we have referred the matter to the police.”