After two years of study and debate, Brandeis University’s Exploratory Committee on Fossil Fuel Divestment has released its Final Report and Recommendations. The committee found, among other conclusions, that “By divesting, Brandeis can…[use] its position of authority as a mechanism for social change and political persuasion.” We wholeheartedly agree. 

During a University referendum two years ago, 79 percent of participating students voted in support of Brandeis “divesting its endowment from the fossil fuel industry in order to avert further environmental and human rights crises as a result of climate change.” In response, University President Frederick Lawrence and the administration convened an exploratory committee to study ways in which the University could “invest and divest responsibly…in the context of climate change and social justice.” 

After years of investigation, the committee offered this final recommendation:

“The majority of the Committee advocates that Brandeis strongly considers divesting its holdings in fossil fuel firms. Student consensus and robust faculty concern suggests that continued investment in fossil fuels presents a fundamental tension with Brandeis’ proud tradition of social justice.”

We applaud the committee for recognizing the logic of fossil fuel divestiture. However, we believe that the Board of Trustees and the administration must do more than “strongly consider divestment.” The Board of the Trustees should commit to divestment at their next meeting. Continued investment in fossil fuel corporations is clearly antithetical to the integrity of our institution and our social justice mission. The duplicitous actions of the fossil fuel industry, the gravity of the climate crisis and robust campus concern all indicate that Brandeis must commit to divestment.

Global climate change is a complex scientific phenomenon. The source of global climate change is not. Companies that extract oil, coal, and gas are most responsible for the emission of carbon dixide and other greenhouse gases. This is because they have tens of trillions of dollars invested in the extraction of fossil fuels and use their vast economic and political resources to deny most people viable alternatives. They own five times the amount of fossil fuels that scientists warn can safely be burned and have dismissed calls from civil society to change their business model according to 350.org. They also refuse to earnestly invest in renewable technologies—such as solar and wind power—which the world needs to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Worst of all, these corporations continue to fund deceitful climate denial by institutions like the Heartland Institute. Their objective is to prolong the fossil fuel age as long as possible—regardless of mounting human rights violations and the dangerous climate they are leaving for countless generations to come. 

Opponents of divestment claim that blaming carbon companies while still consuming fossil fuels is hypocritical. They contend that the solution is individual action and conservation. We agree that reducing fossil fuel use is essential—but without more systemic action, green consumerism is ultimately insufficient. 

The rules and regulations that govern global energy flows are the product of political economy, not personal conversation. Governments structure the dynamics of energy supply and demand far more than individual consumers. Ultimately, collective political actions like divestment will influence the structure of the economy more than individual action. 

While reducing our campus carbon footprint is important, fossil fuel divestment offers the most significant collective action for universities to precipitate social change. Climate change is a systemic problem; through divestment we can create the social and political momentum for a systemic solution. As the Divestment Committee’s report highlights, “The obstacles in the way of speedy progress toward a low-carbon world are not primarily technical or economic in nature, they are mainly political.” 

The climate crisis is not merely a problem of a single corporation but rather a systemic risk of an entire economic sector. The fossil fuel industry’s business model and stock values are based on burning all of their proven reserves. Yet scientists warn this cannot happen. As an April 8th New York Times article details, if fossil fuel corporations extract all their oil, coal and gas, humanity will raise world temperature an apocalyptic 16.2°F.World leaders committed at the 2009 Copenhagen UN climate conference to not exceed 3.6°F—the tipping point beyond which scientists warn will trigger irreversible, runaway climate change. 

There is little doubt that Brandeis students, professors and alumni believe that it is unethical to profit from corporations that disseminate climate denial. An overwhelming majority of students and nearly 40 percent of senior faculty have asserted that Brandeis should divest from fossil fuels. 145 Brandeis professors signed the Faculty Against the Climate Threat petition, which concluded that “we must stop profiting from fossil fuel extraction.” Over 250 alumni have called for Brandeis to “divest our endowment from fossil fuel corporations, the main perpetrators of climate injustice.” Nearly 300 alumni have pledged to withhold donations until Brandeis divests. 

The University’s 1973 guidelines for responsible investing advocate divestment “where a corporation’s conduct is clearly and gravely offensive to the University’s sense of social justice,” especially in relation to “environmental pollution.”

The Divestment Committee’s conclusion that continued investment in fossil fuels presents a “fundamental tension” with the University’s commitment to social justice is true—but this conclusion does not fully capture the moral concern of students and professors. The community’s revulsion to the funding of climate denial and the slandering of Brandeis’ own scientists affirms that investing in fossil fuel firms is definitely “clearly and gravely offensive” to Brandeisian decency in accordance with the University’s 1973 guidelines. 

Divestment is an effective tool for several reasons. As past campaigns reveal, divestment stigmatizes corporations that act against the public interest. It erodes their social license to operate and political capital to influence public policies. As a 2013 Oxford University study concluded: “In almost every divestment campaign we reviewed … divestment campaigns were successful in lobbying for restrictive legislation.” Far from merely  being a “symbolic gesture” these researchers concluded that the “stigmatization process, which the fossil fuel divestment campaign has now triggered, poses the most far-reaching threat to fossil fuel companies.”

This is accomplished via a cascade effect: community organizations—ranging from universities to religious organizations—challenge the legitimacy of offensive corporations; facing increasing social pressure, politicians enact restrictive legislation; through a combination of public pressure, declining revenues or stock prices and/or investor concern, corporations change their egregious behavior.

All across the United States and the world, millions of people are taking part in the Divestment Movement. The Rockefellers (yes, the descendants of the world’s most successful oil entrepreneur) have divested their family trust fund from fossil fuels; Stanford University has divested from coal and $50 billion in assets from churches; charities and wealth funds have been withdrawn from irresponsible carbon corporations, according to TIME magazine. And the momentum is growing against those institutions who continue to profit from the climate crisis. 

This past month, hundreds of students and alumni at Harvard University, Tufts University, University of Mary Washington, Swarthmore College, Wesleyan University, Tulane University and Yale University  held nonviolent sit-ins to pressure their universities to divest. 

This is because, unlike Brandeis, their administrations have not been willing to work with their campaigns. Therefore, Brandeis has the opportunity to lead where other universities remain committed to profiting from the dirty energy of the last century. Through divestment Brandeis can become a leader in this rapidly growing movement. 

In divesting, we want Brandeis to be a leader in the push for a clean, sustainable and equitable future. A just transition would have renewable infrastructure under the direct control of the people who use it, as has been the case with community solar and wind. 

We want to democratize power. Challenging the power of the fossil fuel industry through divesting is an important step toward this goal.

The alarming science and overwhelming community consensus is clear: defend our future, divest now.

—EDITOR’S NOTE: Michael Abrams ’15, Iona Feldman’17 and Philip Wight PhD candidate are part of the exploratory committee on fossil fuels. All members of Brandeis Climate Justice contributed to the publication of this Op-Ed. The members are as follows: Abrams, Cassie Cain ’18, Feldman, Martin Hamilton ’16, Devon Kennedy ’17, Daniel Klein ’18, Camila López ’18, Saren McAllister ’18 and Wight.