People & Planet's Fossil Free campaign
What is the Fossil Free UK campaign?
If it is wrong to wreck the climate, then it is wrong to profit from that wreckage. Too many UK universities support the fossil fuel industry directly through their research, their endowments and investments and their partnerships with some of the biggest fossil fuel companies in the world like BP and Shell.
UK students have decided to take on the fossil fuel industry by getting our universities to go Fossil Free. People & Planet is joining forces with the 350.org campaign that has been sweeping across North American campuses.
We believe that our educational institutions should serve the public good and live up to their promises to tackle climate change. No UK university in their right mind would accept funding from or invest their funds in tobacco companies these days - it’s inconsistent with their research on cancer. The same holds true for fossil fuel companies causing climate change and yet most universities still do not recognise this. That’s about to change!
- Find out more below and sign up to our mailing list for all the latest updates.
- Follow @fossilfree_UK on Twitter
Latest campaign news
Shell: poisoning Earth Sciences
Oxford University's Earth Sciences Department is launching a new partnership with oil giant Shell. Students, academics & alumni stand up and say no.
Join the Fossil-Free campaign
To receive updates on this new campaign and be involved from the start, join our mailing list
What is the People & Planet network calling for?
We want all universities to:
1. Move their money
- screen for and exclude the fossil fuel industry from their investment portfolio
- immediately freeze any new investment in fossil fuel companies
- divest from the fossil fuel industry and shift funds to lower risk, ethical investments within 5 years
2. Support a clean energy future and green jobs
- provide students with ethical careers advice and opportunities
- refocus research & expertise on climate solutions and phase out climate-damaging fossil fuel research
- demand more research funding for renewables from fossil fuel companies and government
3. Stop the greenwash
- publish full details of their financial and other ties to the fossil fuel industry
- stop giving out honorary degrees to fossil fuel industry CEOs (and start giving more to real leaders!)
- stop accepting sponsorship and advertising from fossil fuel companies
Why focus on fossil fuels?
200 publicly-traded companies hold the vast majority of the world’s proven coal, oil and gas reserves. Those are the companies we’ll be asking our institutions to break their links with. Together they hold five times more carbon in their fossil fuel reserves than we can safely afford to burn to stop runaway climate change. It’s that simple…if you do the maths.
From Canada’s dirty tar sands to Arctic drilling and hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) for shale gas - the fossil fuel industry is scraping the bottom of the barrel and causing huge environmental and human devastation in the process. Withdrawing our institutions’ financial and moral backing for this climate-wrecking industry is crucial to tackling climate change.
What can I do?
The campaign will launch officially this autumn, but until then we’re provide a range of opportunities for you to get involved in shaping the campaigns’ aims, objectives, targets, tactics and image.
- Come to Summer Gathering on 1-5 July to get trained up in running this campaign on your campus
- Join our Fossil-Free mailing list to find out more
- ‘Like’ Fossil-Free UK on Facebook for all the latest developments and news
- Sign our Fossil Free petition to Universities UK (the sectoral body representing 134 UK institutions)
- Join our research team over the Summer. Get in touch if you’re interested.
