Institutions with endowments worth £115m are withdrawing their investments from fossil fuels ahead of crunch UN climate talks in Paris

Ten UK universities with endowments worth £115m are in the process ofmoving their money out of fossil fuels ahead of crunch UN climate change talks in Paris later this month.

The University of Surrey, the University of Arts in London (UAL) and Oxford Brookes University are divesting their respective £42m, £3.9m and £1.6m endowments from all fossil fuel companies.

Wolfson College at the University of Oxford has divested its £42m endowment from thermal coal and tar sands, often considered the dirtiest fossil fuels because of the high level of carbon they emit. It follows a similar move by the university in May after a two-year campaign by students and alumni.

A further six universities – Birmingham City University, Cranfield University, Heriot-Watt University, the University of Hertfordshire, the University of Portsmouth and the University of Westminster – joined the global fossil fuel divestment movement after their fund manager CCLA decided to move its investments out of coal and tar sands.

The announcement doubles the number of UK universities to have divested as part of a global movement that has so far seen more than 2,000 institutions and 400 individuals worth a collective £2.6tn move investments of out various forms of fossil fuels.



Piers Telemacque, National Union of Students’ vice-president for society and citizenship, said: “It’s amazing to see more universities divesting as we build momentum towards the climate talks in Paris. We need to show the sort of moral leadership we want to see from our governments. This is just the latest example of students making change on today’s most pressing social justice issue.”

In less than three weeks, leaders from more than 190 nations will meet in Paris with the aim of negotiating a new deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions to prevent dangerous climate change.