Introduction

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

This summer, Georgetown joined Stanford in its promise to stop investing in coal companies, under pressure from student groups seeking widespread college divestment from the fossil fuel industry. But many, including environmentalists, have called these efforts useless, as divestment hardly seems to make a financial dent in the industry and it does not directly address the capping of greenhouse gas emissions.

Is divestment a useful strategy for mitigating climate change, or is it effective in other ways?