Asset AllocationJune 2, 2014

Oxford Endowment Under Pressure to Dump Fossil Fuel Investments

Staff campaign to Vice-Chancellor for £1.5 billion of university funds to divest of holdings in oil, gas, and coal companies.

Reported by Featured Author

(June 2, 2014) — Staff and academics at Oxford University have written an open letter to its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, calling for the institution’s £1.5 billion endowment fund to sell out of companies involved in fossil fuels.

The letter called for the Oxford University Endowment and Oxford University Capital funds, both overseen by CIO Sandra Robertson, to divest of holdings in the “top 200 companies involved in the exploration, ownership or extraction of fossil fuels”.

The signatories argued that the contributions of Oxford academics to research into climate change and the declining reserves of coal, oil, and gas meant that the university’s endowment funds should divest from companies on the list to “amplify the voice of its academics and signal to policymakers the need to act now on climate change”.

“Concern over the long-term financial viability of fossil fuel investments is spreading rapidly,” the letter said, citing the move made by Norway’s sovereign wealth fund to consider “divesting from fossil fuels” as well as an HSBC report into the subject.

“Given these growing concerns over long-term environmental sustainability and financial stability, we encourage the university to fulfil its fiduciary duties by divesting its endowment from fossil fuels,” the letter said.

The campaign wants the funds to dump holdings in some of the biggest listed companies in the world, including ExxonMobil, Gazprom, BP, Shell, Anglo American, and BHP Billiton. The companies are part of a list compiled by a global campaign group Fossil Free Indexes.

A petition backing the Oxford Academics for Fossil Fuels Divestment campaign has already garnered more than 1,000 signatures from staff and students of the university, according to the campaign’s website, while students and staff marched through the city of Oxford on Saturday to draw attention to the campaign.

The letter can be viewed in full on the campaign’s website.