logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

University of Glasgow is First in Europe to Divest from Fossil Fuels

Shafaq Hasan
October 14, 2014
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

 

Glasgow
Jia Li  / Shutterstock.com

October 8, 2014;The Guardian

Last week, the University of Glasgow in Scotland became the first European academic institution to divest from fossil fuels, a feat many American colleges like Harvard and Princeton have been struggling to accomplish.

The university court voted last Wednesday to begin divesting £18 million from the fossil fuel industry and to stop new investments as well. The initiative was pioneered by the Glasgow University Climate Action Society, encompassing 1,300 students, and took almost a year to come to fruition.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

According to David Newall, the secretary of the University of Glasgow court, “The university recognizes the devastating impact that climate change may have on our planet and the need for the world to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels.”

Reactions to the news has confirmed for environmental activists like Bill McKibben, founder of the climate change campaign 350.org, that the divestment movement is a global effort and Europe will be “just as powerful in this fight as Australia and North America.”

The announcement comes just weeks after the largest climate change march ever was organized in New York City, bringing climate change once again into view for the global community. NPQ has also taken note of the mass exodus of tech companies, including Google, Yelp, Yahoo, and Facebook, from the conservative nonprofit organization American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) because of its stance on climate change—again, pushing the issue to the forefront of national news.

University of Glasgow joins several other organizations and businesses that have recently announced their divestment from fossil fuels, such as the Rockefeller Brothers, the Ben and Jerry’s Foundation, and religious institutions worldwide. Glasgow will also join American universities such as Stanford University, Pitzer College, Hampshire College, and 11 other schools across the country whose administrations have joined the movement.

The decision may also impact other European universities’ involvement in the fossil fuel industry, like the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. That institution became the first in England to freeze all new investments, taking a step forward toward full divestment. The school will make a decision on divestment next month.—Shafaq Hasan

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Shafaq Hasan

Shafaq Hasan is a Community Builder at NPQ. She is a graduate of Brandeis University where she majored in Art History and spent most of her time working in the office of the student newspaper as the Opinions editor, and later, as an Associate editor. As an undergraduate, she was also a research assistant for the Justice Brandeis Law Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism from 2011 to 2014.

More about: divestment campaignsEnvironmentHigher EducationNonprofit NewsPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Student Loans Update: What You Need to Know
Marian Conway
Solidarity on Campus: A Faculty Union’s Learnings from COVID-19
Todd Wolfson
How Environmental Education Is Moving into High Schools
Ayana Albertini-Fleurant, Dr. Janelle M. Burke, Kari Fulton, Joe Hurst and Ariel Murphy Bedford
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
A Movement for Free College
Alí Bustamante

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Student Loans Update: What You Need to Know
Marian Conway
Solidarity on Campus: A Faculty Union’s Learnings from...
Todd Wolfson
How Environmental Education Is Moving into High Schools
Ayana Albertini-Fleurant, Dr. Janelle M. Burke, Kari Fulton, Joe Hurst and Ariel Murphy Bedford

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.