Harvard University will end investment in fossil fuels

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Lawrence Bacow speaks during his inauguration as the 29th President of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, on October 5, 2018. REUTERS / Brian Snyder

BOSTON, Sept. 9 (Reuters) – Harvard University puts an end to its investments in fossil fuels, the school’s president said Thursday, praising divestment activists who have long pressured the university’s leaders to get out of these farms.

In a letter posted on the Harvard website, President Lawrence Bacow said the school’s endowment had no direct investments in fossil fuel exploration or development companies as of June and will not make those investments in Harvard. the future, “given the need to decarbonize the economy.”

The university’s indirect investments in the fossil fuel industry “are in runoff mode,” he added. Indirect investments, made through private equity funds, account for less than 2% of the endowment, Bacow wrote.

Recently valued at about $ 42 billion, most of any university, the school’s endowment has been pressured for years by students, alumni and other activists to sell their fossil fuel funds as a way to slow down climate change.

Others have called these movements only as postures. In May, an activist fund took another position and won three seats on the board of ExxonMobil Corp (XOM.N), promising to reform the climate company of the leading oil company. Read more

Representatives from the Cambridge, Massachusetts school did not immediately provide further details.

For most of the past decade, previous Harvard officials had resisted calls to sell fossil fuel stocks, but more recently changed course under the new leaders, including Bacow, president since 2018.

Internal pressure for divestment has also grown, including young members elected to one of Harvard’s boards of directors last year on a divestment platform.

Divest Harvard, one of the activist groups, on Twitter described the measure as “a massive victory for our community, the climate movement and the world, and a strike against the power of the fossil fuel industry.”

Ross Kerber reports in Boston; Edited by Richard Pullin

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