Media conference highlights and celebrates significance of the historic Harvard divestment announcement

Activists from student divest-invest campaigns and leaders of the global fossil fuel divest-invest movement hosted a press conference yesterday to discuss the significance of Harvard University’s recent divestment announcement and what it means for campaigns targeting universities, cities, pensions, and other financial institutions. The speakers also spoke to the financial impact of these announcements on the fossil fuel sector and their significance in the lead up to COP26, the global climate summit of world leaders in Glasgow in November. The press conference was hosted by Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard, Stand.earth and Wallace Global Fund. 

Following nearly a decade of pressure from student activists, alumni, and faculty, Harvard, the world’s wealthiest university, announced that it has nearly entirely divested its $42 billion endowment from fossil fuels and will bar any future investments in coal, oil and gas.

“There have been thousands of alumni, students and faculty who have taken part in this,” said Bill Mckibben, co-founder of 350.org. “Anyone who has been engaged in all of the other thousands of divestment campaigns, successful or unsuccessful, have played a huge role in bringing this general pressure to bear.”

See what other Divest-Invest Movement leaders had to say during the event here.