Divestment

Divestment is a campaign to reduce the influence and reliance on the fossil fuel industry by removing its funding. The industry relies on heavy leveraging in order to make profits from the extraction, refinement, and consumption of fossil fuels. It receives this leverage through 1) public equity in the form of stocks, 2) private equity through large investment funds and financial institutions, and 3) business loans. The divestment campaign targets these sources of leverage by 1) convincing individuals to not invest in fossil fuel stocks and the stocks of financial institutions lending to the fossil fuel industry, 2) convincing private institutions such as pension funds to end both public and private investment in fossil fuel companies, and 3) pressuring financial institutions to end lending practices to the fossil fuel industry by boycotting personal banking, pressuring busineess to bank with alternative companies, and divesting from the stocks of financial institutions.

At UCSD I lead the Fossil Free Finance campaign within the UCSD Green New Deal. Our campaign is centered around three actionable points:

Personal Divestment

Individuals at UCSD can divest themselves from fossil fuels by

1) Moving their retirement savings to a fossil free fund.

2) Swithing their personal banking to a fossil-free bank, such as the USE Credit Union.

Institutional Divestment

The UC has announced that it has “divested from all fossil fuels” but it continues to invest in oil refining, fossil-burning utilities, and financial institutions that finance the fossil fuel industry. We want the UC to 1) be transparent about its existing investments and their carbon intensity, 2) broaden its definition of what it means to be fossil-free, and to 3)issue calls for proposals for banking and insurance partners that include fossil-free and ESG criteria.

Fossil Funding in Academia

Many researchers at UCSD receive grant money from the fossil fuel industry while simultaneously working on climate-related research. We believe this constitutes a conflict of interest that should be disclosed, just like tobacco industry funding of medical research and pharmaseutical industry funding of cancer research. Researchers and labs that receive funds from the fossil fuel industry need to clearly state their funding and the existence of potential conflicts of interest in plublications and press communication.