Harvard divestment campaigners gear up for a week of action
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Version 0 of 1. Campaigners at Harvard University are beginning a week of direct action on campus to increase pressure on the institution to divest from fossil fuels. It comes as a new analysis suggests that the world’s richest university would have been $21m (£14m) better off without fossil fuel investments in the period since the divestment campaign began in August 2012. The university has refused calls to divest, saying its responsibility is to generate a healthy financial return for its $36bn endowment. Organisers expect that hundreds of students, staff and alumni will engage in acts of civil disobedience, as part of ‘Harvard Heat Week’, with dozens reported willing to risk arrest. Members of the local community and student divestment activists from other universities have also been invited to attend. The activists have been heartened by an analysis from the investment firm Trillium Asset Management that says the university’s fossil fuel holdings have cost the endowment millions over the course of the divestment campaign. The $21m estimated loss is based on the performance of fossil fuel holdings in the $1bn of its $36bn (£23bn) portfolio that Harvard makes public. Matthew Patsky, Trillium’s CEO, said: “This stance is Harvard’s loss – literally. Three years is, of course, a relatively short time frame for evaluating an investment portfolio. Nevertheless, Harvard’s continued investment in fossil fuels during that time has diminished the financial strength of the endowment.” The calculation includes a $14m drop in the six months until the end of March 2015. Patsky said: “This staggering potential loss is only half of the story. Opportunity cost is the other half. If Harvard had sold off its fossil fuel holdings it would have reinvested the proceeds, presumably with broad market exposure.” More than 220 institutions have now committed to divest from fossil fuels – including faith organisations, foundations and pension funds – as part of a global campaign launched by 350.org. On 1 April, Syracuse university became the largest yet to commit to divestment from all fossil fuel companies, while in May last year Stanford University announced it would be removing its coal investments. Other universities who have made a commitment to divest include Glasgow, Bedfordshire and the New School in New York. Campaigners are active on other university campuses, with 19 students arrested at Yale for staging a sit-in on Thursday. A divestment debate with historian Naomi Oreskes and university professors took place at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on the same day. It is thought that Harvard has $79m worth of direct investments in coal, oil and gas companies with indirect investments likely to be much more. Student Talia Rothstein, 19, said: “We’ve been building momentum for three years until this moment. In spite of the hardline of the administration, we’ve had remarkable success in escalating the campaign with every tactic. This is the next step. We hope the week will show there is broad support for the movement, both on campus and nationally. It’s high time we saw some changes.” Harvard’s president, Drew Gilpin Faust, has rejected divestment as “neither warranted or wise”, calling its endowment “an economic resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change”. The university has since become a signatory to the Principles of Responsible Investment, a network of institutional investors co-ordinated by the UN, and the Carbon Disclosure Project which works with companies to disclosure information on their greenhouse has emissions. In February a series of high profile alumni – including actor Natalie Portman and environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr – signed a letter urging the administration to divest. A number of students have also taken the university and government of Massachusetts to court, in a lawsuit that argues that by continuing to invest in fossil fuels, Harvard is putting current and future generations in danger. On Sunday, Harvard Heat Week started with speeches by high profile figures including film director, Darren Aronofsky, Bill McKibben, the co-founder of the environmental movement 350.org and Lennox Yearwood, the founder of political activism organisation Hip Hop Caucus. |