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Jesus withdraws all direct investments in fossil fuel industries

A huge success for the college’s Environment Committee


Jesus College’s Environment Committee has announced that the college has dropped all directly owned equity investments in fossil fuel industries. Investments had previously included shares in Hurricane Energy, a North Sea exploration company.

This decision has come after the college’s Green Officer formed the Jesus College Divestment Campaign over the 2019 Lent term to tackle divestment from fossil fuel industries head on. Vice-Master James Clackson also announced that the college is planning an event in November where further development in responsible investment strategy will be discussed.

Other colleges, such as Selwyn and Emmanuel, have already exited their direct investment in fossil fuel industries. Clare College’s Sustainable Investment society and Divest and Disarm Emmanuel are amongst other college committees working towards full direct and indirect divestment in fossil fuel industries.

It will be interesting to see whether these growing success stories will encourage the Cambridge colleges that still hold shares in fossil fuel to divest over the coming terms.

One Jesus student and attendee of the divestment meetings told The Cambridge Tab: "I’m really happy we’ve divested; I think Jesus as one of the richest colleges should be at the forefront of environmental issues and I'm glad that they are using their resources ethically. Next step is to indirectly divest too!"

Alongside these developments in Jesus’ investments, the college has also announced its intention to create a ‘sustainability strategy’ by October 2020, which would follow the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and has encouraged members of the college to contribute ideas.

Cover photo source: Jesusgreen [CC BY-SA 3.0]