Divestment is the process of selling financial assets to achieve specific financial, political or ethical goals. For example, in the 1980's, hundreds of colleges across the United States divested from corporations operating in South Africa to oppose the system of legalized racial segregation known as apartheid. This divestment movement set the stage for federal action and economic pressures that contributed to ending the apartheid.
In recent times, the fossil fuel divestment movement has emerged and seeks to address a problem with a more global scale: climate change. Over 97 percent of scientists agree that Earth’s climate is being dramatically altered as a result of our dependence on fossil fuels over the last century. There is also broad scientific consensus that the effects of climate change could severely impact the life, liberty and property of millions of people around the globe, not to mention the fact that it is currently a major driver of the ongoing sixth mass extinction.
Over 500 institutions around the world have committed to divest from fossil fuels; however, DePauw University is not one of them. In 2013, a group of DePauw students led a ‘’Divest DePauw” campaign and submitted a proposal to the Board of Trustees to commit DePauw to fossil fuel divestment. This request was denied. After three years of record-breaking global temperatures (since 1880) and an approximately 2 percent increase in global carbon dioxide, we are revisiting the question of whether DePauw should commit to fossil fuel divestment.
How much of DePauw’s $644 million endowment is invested in fossil fuel companies? The answer to this is unknown. DePauw’s endowment is managed by the investment advisory firm CornerStone Partners LLC and guided by the Board of Trustees. Despite the uncertainty surrounding what proportion of the endowment is invested in fossil fuel companies, there are calls for DePauw to honor its ethical commitments toward environmental protection, higher education and social justice by divesting from fossil fuels. Many big coal, oil and gas corporations undermine science for economic gain by funding climate change deniers and weaken democratic governance by lobbying government. Exxon Mobil is currently being investigated by 17 U.S. attorneys general and the FBI for misleading investors and the public on the risks of climate change. Such acts by the fossil fuel industry significantly delay action on climate change.
How urgent is action on climate change? Most scientists believe that the effects of a global temperature increase of over 2 degrees Celsius will be nothing short of a worldwide catastrophe. To practically limit global warming to an increase of 2 degrees Celsius, fossil fuel production and consumption must be completely phased out by the middle of the century.
Divesting from fossil fuels is not a radical idea. Hundreds of university and college campuses have already committed to divesting, as have many cities such as Minneapolis, Portland, Ore. and Providence. R.I. Furthermore, DePauw already has several commitments to sustainability. In 2008, President Casey signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. This pledge is a promise to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality. DePauw also recognized sustainability as a core value by creating an Office of Sustainability and establishing the Environmental Fellows honors program to prepare students for the complex environmental challenges that face our world. It is time for DePauw to re-evaluate its intellectual consistency by reviving the dialogue on divestment.
Jessica Keister and Sarah White also contributed to this article.