|
In a letter posted on Harvard's 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 such investments in 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. The indirect
investments, made through private equity funds, make up less
than 2% of the endowment, Bacow wrote.
Recently valued at about $42 billion, the most of any
university, the school's endowment has been under pressure for
years from students, alumni and other activists to sell off its
fossil fuel holdings as a way to slow climate change.
Others have called such moves only posturing. In May an activist
fund took a different tack and won three seats on ExxonMobil
Corp's board, vowing to reform the leading oil company's climate
record.
Representatives for 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 new leaders including Bacow, president
since 2018.
Internal pressure for divestment has also grown, including from
young members elected to one of Harvard's leadership boards last
year on a divestment platform.
Divest Harvard, one of the activists groups, on Twitter
described the move as "a massive victory for our community, the
climate movement, and the world -- and a strike against the
power of the fossil fuel industry."
(Reporting by Ross Kerber in Boston; Editing by Richard Pullin)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
