More than 10,000 Australian academics and university employees have signed a petition asking $85 billion superannuation fund Unisuper to divest from companies they say are incompatible with the Paris climate agreement.

Unisuper has 450,000 members, largely working in the tertiary education sector, and is the default fund for all major metropolitan universities including the University of Melbourne, RMIT, the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney and the University of Queensland.

More than 10,000 university professionals have signed a petition asking Unisuper to divest from the fossil fuel industry. Credit:Louise Kennerley

It is also the fund of choice for most major regional universities, including the Australian National University, Charles Sturt University and the University of Wollongong.

The industry fund was one of five revealed to have billions invested in the global fossil fuel industry, alongside HESTA, Cbus, AustralianSuper and Hostplus. Unisuper's records show it has almost $8 billion invested in 14 thermal coal mines and 13 oil and gas companies. The fund previously stated it had no plans to divest from these assets.