Statement on Divestment
Date: 17 February 2021
The Master and Bursar were pleased to receive an open letter from a number of members on Divestment. The letter (which is included below) made a number of requests. The College Meeting has discussed these requests at length and responded as follows:
“As a College we regard these requests as broadly reasonable and achievable, and can commit to make all reasonable efforts to deliver them. There may be a few technical challenges which will only affect small sums (eg liquidating hedge fund holdings) which we can discuss with you as we come across them. We can however underline our commitment to full divestment. We note though that our fossil fuel investments have never been large and this divestment is not materially significant. We remain to be convinced that divestment makes any positive contribution to addressing Climate Change, but believe that there are many more substantive interventions that are much more significant and which the College will pursue. The College has made much more significant progress in other areas and is committed to continue to work on the major challenges posed by global warming.”
Read the College’s Investment Statement.
Divestment Open Letter to the College
Dear Lord Chris Smith and Dr Andrew Cates,
We, the undersigned, call on Pembroke College to commit to full divestment from fossil fuels.
The climate emergency is the single most important issue of our times. An overwhelming and ever-growing body of research warns that unless global carbon emissions start rapidly decreasing, the impacts of climate change will be devastating, irreversible, and will disproportionately affect frontline communities in the Global South.
The destructive practices of the fossil fuel industry are fundamentally incompatible with climate justice. For decades, the fossil fuel industry has knowingly continued to fuel climate breakdown, lobbying against environmental regulations, bankrolling misleading climate science, and continuing to look for new sources of oil and gas.
Divestment is an effective, tangible way to effect change. In October 2020, the University of Cambridge committed to full divestment by 2030, and at least 14 Cambridge colleges have announced a commitment to at least partial divestment. It is past time for Pembroke to do the same.
As students, staff and Alum, we are all incredibly proud to be members of Pembroke College. We firmly believe it is not too late for Pembroke to demonstrate its commitment to tackling the climate crisis.
In light of this, we urge Pembroke College to do the following:
- Publicly announce a commitment to full divestment from fossil fuels by the end of the 2020/2021 academic year.
- Update the existing investment policy (2017) to be in compliance with full divestment from fossil fuels and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, which incorporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) considerations, by the end of 2021.
- Remove all direct investments from the 200 largest fossil fuel producers in terms of emissions (as defined by the Carbon Underground 200) by the end of 2021.
- Remove all indirect investments in the Carbon Underground 200 list of companies by switching away from all relevant investment funds by the end of 2023 (excluding CUEF, which will be fully divested by 2030).