Zero carbon uni pledge

THE University of Tasmania has committed to divest entirely from fossil fuel investments by the end of next year.

Addressing students and staff on Monday, UTAS vicechancellor Rufus Black said the university had decided to begin moving away from fossil fuel investments.

He said UTAS already had no direct shareholdings in fossil fuel companies and said to date fossil fuel- exposed investments represented 0.6 per cent of the university’s portfolio.

“We are working to be out of fossil fuel investments by the end of next year, but we have also taken the view that divestment is not enough,” Professor Black said.

“We need to invest to change the world. An economy consistent with a stable future for our climate is very different to the one we have today.

“New ways of doing business, new technologies, new ways of organising our society are all urgently needed.

“Therefore the university has changed its investment strategy to target those investments that support the delivery of a zero carbon economy.”

Professor Black said “our grandchildren will live into an era where our planet will be transformed into the dramatically negative unless we do something bold”.

In 2018 UTAS students protested for the university to adopt a fossil fuel- free policy by brandishing a sign of the word “divest” on kunanyi/ Mount Wellington.

The UTAS announcement comes on the launch day of Global Climate Change Week which Tasmania, and more specifically, UTAS, is hosting this year.

The university will hold stewardship of the fast- growing Global Climate Change Week initiative until 2025.

Started five years ago by two academics at the University of Wollongong, the week will feature nearly 200 public lectures, panel discussions and arts activities on almost every continent.

“We have universities from all over the world registered and a whole range of diverse and interesting activities that are limited only by the imagin

ations of the people involved,” co- chair Professor Fred Gale said. “We want to make sure there is action on climate change around the world at university level. It’s a critical issue. We’ve got a decade to turn this around.”

The university ranked third worldwide when the Times Higher Education University Impact Rankings assessed 376 institutions against the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals earlier this year.