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UCU calls for an investment strategy that prevents runaway climate change

7 November 2013

Too many UK universities and key pension schemes support the fossil fuel industry.

The fossil fuel industry is driving us towards a global climate crisis: we will not keep dangerous climate change at bay without halting our extraction of fossil-fuels. Too many UK universities support the fossil fuel industry directly through their research, their £6bn endowments and investments and their partnerships with some of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world like BP and Shell. As for pension funds both these companies are also in the top ten investments of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

The 'Fossil Free' and 'Green Light' campaigns launched last week and UCU attended both events.

Fossil Free - UCU and the TUC held a meeting with Bill McKibben, the founder of 350.org to discuss the role of trade unions in the broad alliance being established to take this message into the education sector and wider community.

ShareAction The Green Light Report: resilient portfolios in an uncertain world is he first salvo in a campaign of a coalition of groups brought together by ShareAction, including Unison, Unite and the University and College Union. Its purpose is to highlight the need for the pension industry to take a central role in funding the measures necessary to mitigate climate change.

Click here for further information on 'the carbon bubble' and 'unburnable assets'

Last updated: 13 January 2016