Pressure is mounting on the University of Victoria Foundation’s board to rid itself of investments in fossil fuel related stocks, but, for now, the board is continuing to gather information and is sticking with the investing approach it fine-tuned last year.

Divestment supporters turned out in force Monday evening for a forum on climate change and divestment, organized by UVic and Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, with speakers ranging from Suncor Energy Inc. vice-president Steve Douglas to Malkolm Boothroyd, a spokesman for Divest UVic, and wild applause for those in favour of immediate divestment showed where the sympathies lay.

If it’s wrong to wreck the Earth’s climate, it is wrong to invest in fossil fuels, Boothroyd said.

“Responsibility means leaving those fossil fuels in the ground. We can’t have it both ways. UVic has got to make a decision and I believe it is UVic’s responsibility to divest from fossil fuels,” he said to a standing ovation from some of the audience.

For panel member Crystal Lameman of the Beaver Lake Cree Nation, the basic question comes down to taking any possible action, including divestment, to stop problems caused by “extreme resource extraction” in the Alberta oil sands.

“If you breathe the air and drink the water, this is about you,” she said.

But supporters of divestment already have it both ways as petroleum products are in everything from lipstick and Lycra to cell phones and paint said Douglas, emphasizing that divestment does not solve climate change. He argued 90 per cent of oil reserves on the planet are controlled by governments so reducing investments in the small percentage of private companies will not help.

The conundrum is that there is no doubt that climate change is real and burning fossil fuels is one of the culprits, but fossil fuels are essential to modern life, he said.

“How do you reconcile those two ideas?” he asked.

“How do we transition our energy system to meet the energy needs of the future in a climate challenged world? … We have to transition in a way that doesn’t dislocate our economy and our social system.”

Last year, UVic professors and other groups demanded that all new investment in companies whose primary interests are fossil fuel extraction, processing and transportation should be frozen and that the administration should initiate a three-year divestment plan.

However, the University of Victoria Foundation, which manages the $370-million endowment fund – used for scholarships, bursaries and research –  wrote to the university’s board of governors in September saying that it would maintain its current responsible investment policies that incorporate environmental, social and governance considerations. As part of the Foundation’s efforts to explore direct involvement in organizations that promote responsible investing, the board voted to become a signatory to the United Nations Principals for Responsible Investment.

Last September $39-million of the endowment fund, or about 10.5 per cent of its assets, were invested in energy sector stocks.

The lack of action is infuriating some of the UVic students, who were gathering names on a petition Monday evening.

“I don’t think the university students are going to stand for anything less than divestment,” said Ida Jorgenson.

“I think this is an issue that is not going to go away. In the end they are going to have to confront it.”

The divestment movement is taking root at universities throughout North America, with active campaigns at about 30 Canadian universities including Simon Fraser University and the University of B.C, where faculty is currently voting on whether to ask the board of governors to change its policy on responsible investment.

However, while some herald it as a positive step to address climate change, others believe it is misguided.

The moral high ground is in climate solutions, not in the drop in the bucket represented by university divestment, said Cary Krosinsky, a Yale University lecturer and co-founder of the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

“If we are serious about (addressing climate change) we need a global initiative. We need a really big action. Divestment doesn’t even come close,” he said.

However, divestment does not necessarily mean a loss for the endowment fund and portfolios that have divested from fossil fuels performed well during the last year, he said.

But for panelist and Vancouver Sun columnist Stephen Hume, the issue is trying to address climate change in a polarized environment.

“Among the delusions is that there’s a them and us. There is no them, only us,” he said.

“This isn’t a theatre. It’s a canoe and we are all in that canoe and we had better start paddling in the same direction or we’re going to tip over and we are all going to drown,” he said.

That means the involvement of government, said Hume, exhorting students to get out and vote.

The theme was picked up by PICS executive director Thomas Pedersen, who challenged the audience to take action on climate change by voting.

“Make this an issue of key political importance in the federal election,” he said.

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Professors at the University of Victoria (UVic) are demanding the school’s administration freeze all new investment in fossil fuels and initiate a three-year divestment of all fossil fuel holdings.

The university endowment fund has approximately $21 million currently invested in fossil fuels.

In an open letter addressed to Lisa Hill, Chair of the University of Victoria Foundation and copied to university president Jamie Cassels, faculty members voiced concerns over the ethical and financial viability of fossil fuel investments, noting “the growing North American movement, led by students, to see their universities act as moral leaders for their communities by disinvesting from such companies.” The full list of signatories can be seen here.

Kelsey Mech, Divest UVic student organizer and chair of the UVic student society, said such strong faculty support for the campaign comes as a surprise. “I am floored. I am so blown away,” she told DeSmog Canada.

“Our goal was to have 100 faculty sign on by April 30th. We just blew that target out of the water as we are already at 160, representing just shy of 20 per cent of faculty,” she said. Nearly 2000 UVic students have signed a petition in support of the divestment campaign.

“I’ve been organizing on campus at the University of Victoria on various environmental issues for the past five years, and I have never seen something light up the campus like divestment has,” Mech told DeSmog Canada. “I’m beyond thrilled, and so grateful for everyone who is willing to take a public stand for our collective futures.”

In their open letter faculty members state “the science is clear” on human-caused climate change, which is expected to cost the Canadian economy $5 billion per year by 2020. The adverse effects of a warming planet, they note, has already killed thousands and creates vulnerable environmental refugees. The burning, transportation and refinement of fossil fuels, they add, perpetuates these negative impacts. 

“We should not support, let alone profit from, companies responsible for this suite of effects.”

The divestment campaign will be presented to the board of the endowment fund and the board of governors at UVic this summer.

Environmental studies professor and letter signatory Jessica Dempsey said faculty support for the initiative is growing: “everyday there are more signatories as more faculty become aware of the issue.”

“I think both students and faculty are looking for ways to seriously engage and confront the climate crisis, in a time when we have no governmental leadership, and no signs of it on the horizon,” she told DeSmog Canada.

Although there has been some resistance on campus, says Dempsey, the majority of it has not been against divestment in principle.

“There is pushback on campus, of course,” she said. “But what is surprising is how much of that pushback – at least so far – comes not in terms of outright disagreement, but rather is focused on the difficulty of implementation. A common refrain is that ‘it’s complex.’”

The UVic endowment and pension investments are managed by trustees with a fiduciary duty “that legally enshrines them to maximize returns,” Dempsey explains, leading to questions about how these and similar funds can account for ethical considerations as well as their legal mandate to maximize returns to the beneficiaries. Pensions, she notes, are governed separately from the university's endowment.

According to Kelsey Mech “the university has asked fund managers to consider environmental, social and governance factors when deciding on investments, but there is no formal or mandatory screening process to follow.”

These kinds of investment ‘complexities’ should be confronted, according to Dempsey, and the university is an ideal place to do so.

“Surely fiduciary duty needs to be revised, or reinterpreted so that we don’t retire to an increasingly uninhabitable planet,” she said.

And concerns surrounding investment in fossil fuels bring up a host of other considerations for Dempsey, especially in terms of employee pensions.

“If you can believe it, my faculty pension has no ethical screens. We can invest in arms, tobacco, and so on. It’s outrageous, really. But of all places in society, the university is well-positioned to lead, to find creative solutions to these complexities.” She clarified that her UVic pension is not, as far as she knows, invested in arms or tobacco, but there is no screen in place that would prevent the pension trustees from doing so.

She added, “who is better placed than UVic law faculty and students to innovate and propose concrete changes to currently unethical but legal mandates like fiduciary duty to maximize returns?”

James Rowe, another professor at the School of Environmental Studies and lead organizer for the campaign, said there is also a strong financial case to be made for divestment.

“The current valuation of oil companies includes huge reserves of fossil fuels that cannot be burned if humanity wants to avoid run-away climate change. When policy making inevitably catches up with the scientific consensus on climate change, share prices for oil companies will be negatively impacted, generating losses for investors,” he said.

Investment in fossil fuels “conflicts” with the university’s environmental leadership role on campus, the open letter states, including the housing of the influential Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

“As with the movement against apartheid in South Africa, students have challenged the university to fulfill its role as a leader on issues of justice. And as with the anti-apartheid movement, this movement will not retire until it has succeeded,” the letter reads.

Divestment, according to Mech, is not only practical, but gives institutions like the university a productive way to move the climate conversation forward.

“Divestment is an extremely impactful way to shift the narrative around our reliance on fossil fuels and to force people to recognize the urgency of the climate change crisis,” she said.

“When major institutes, like universities, choose to divest from these dirty industries it sends a strong message that we are no longer willing to accept the status quo and are demanding a transition to a clean energy future,” she said.

More than 300 other North American universities are currently home to a divestment campaign. Recently the Simon Fraser University Faculty Association voted to create a fossil fuel free option in their pension and the City of Seattle voted to divest from fossil fuels.

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