Invest in our future, not fossil fuels!
Points we made in our submission:
ANU is has a great reputation for leadership on sustainability teaching and research, which should extend to its investments.
Fossil fuel extraction damages local health, water, ecosystems and communities.
As the Climate Commission recently discussed, 80% of the world’s fossil fuels must stay unburnt to meet our government’s own safety target of 2 degree temperature increase.
It cannot be socially responsible to profit from this damage.
Divesting would secure ANU’s finances over the medium term, protecting it from the ‘carbon bubble’ from global climate action and falling renewables costs.
Leadership through divestment would also make ANU a more attractive option for donations; fossil fuel investments will turn away donors who wont want their money put into coal mines and fracking.
The divestment movement is booming around the world and ANU should lead, not get left behind. Among those already going fossil free are San Francisco, Seattle and many other US Cities, US Colleges including San Francisco State, and churches including the Uniting Church in NSW and ACT.
Divestment isn’t risky: if US Colleges had divested 10 years ago, they would have made more money!
You can read Fossil Free ANU’s submission here.
Read on to see our response to the Vice-Chancellor, as well as a record of our email correspondences.
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Filed under Campaigns
Tagged as Ethics, Fossil Fuel, Investments, Policy, Submissions, University Council
June 28, 2013 · 2:50 am