Every university wants to be seen to be 'acting green', but how many are sincerely willing to put in the work?

Paint brush making green mark with a $ in the paint.

As the global climate justice movement continues to grow and grow with an increasingly exciting energy, it manifests at its loudest, most colourful, creative, and radical on university campuses across the UK and the world. With a fresh wave of fossil fuel divestments announced alongside People & Planet's 2016 University League, universities across the country now know full well that sustainability is a core concern for their staff and students, and it is here to stay.

New research from People & Planet’s University League has shown that a quarter of UK higher education institutions have committed to some form of divestment from fossil fuels. This represents a massive victory for the Fossil Free campaign, still only three years old in the UK. Fossil Free has been named the fastest growing divestment movement in history; now we have the data to back that up.

The NUS represents 7 million students and passes policy at their annual conference. In collaboration with the Zapotec Indigenous community, UK students from the University West of Scotland and beyond are proposing an amendment to the Divest-Invest motion (502b) to support a just transition to renewable energy that does not reproduce the colonial models of extraction employed by the fossil fuel industry. Please act on their call for our solidarity.

To the National Union of Students
To all students in the UK

Dear friends,

Anna from Glasgow Uni reporting from Paris COP 2015

We are breaking the ban on protest to challenge false solutions.

COP21 is supposed to negotiate a new climate agreement. My hopes were high for an ambitious deal. That was before the conference started. So far we have seen targets set that will take us well above the 1.5 degrees C ‘safety zone’ and closer to a 3 degrees C world where front-line communities are readily sacrificed. At the same time attempts are being made to silenced front-line and indigenous voices.

Persuaded the UK government to lead an international commitment to provide treatment for all by 2010 — millions more now receive treatment
Supported countries’ rights to access affordable treatment for their people — last year we helped 8,000 more people in Thailand get treatment, and in July 2008 the first steps were taken toward setting up a new international mechanism to bring down the cost of essential medicines.
Increased the international funding for HIV/AIDS

The award was given for the newly launched People & Planet University League (then called "Green League") - the first ever league table comparing the environmental performance of UK universities. The People & Planet University League attracted attention within the sector and without, with more than 50 websites and news stories worldwide covering the story. It has driven incredible changes in the sector ever since.