Though the divestment movement at Harvard is barely a year old, student organizers say that the rapid growth and fervor of the movement comes from the urgency of climate change.
Divest Harvard organizers point to research indicating that the potential ramifications of the climate crisis are varied and severe, ranging from rising sea levels that could destroy entire countries to climate disruption that could cause harsher droughts and floods.
The sentiments of Harvard’s student divestment leaders are shared with student activists from across schools nationwide.
“The ultimate goal is to get [legislative] action on climate change that would make it illegal to burn more fossil fuels than it is safe to burn,” said Daniel L. Jubelirer, an active member of Tufts Divest for Our Future. “Green energy is feasible, it just isn’t being funded.”
But the divestment movement is only one piece of the sustainability puzzle, said Franta. By changing the way people think about climate change on a massive scale, he said, divestment supports and accelerates the efforts of policy and technological change.
“Infrastructural technologies societies use to sustain economies are developed over a long period of time, under the support of permanent economic policies,” Franta said. “So it really comes down to the political level. How much money will we put into low carbon industry research? Are we going to intentionally try to phase out use of fossil energy sources or are we just going to keep using it?”
IS IT PRACTICAL?
Though Harvard maintains its firm stance against divestment, it has not ignored the national movement towards sustainability. In December 2012 Harvard announced the creation of a separate social choice fund to which donors could choose to direct their gifts. Two months later, amid rising calls from student groups, the Harvard Management Company created the position of vice president for sustainable investing.
In her October letter to the Harvard community, Faust described the vice presidential position as helping HMC to “think in more nuanced, forward-looking ways about sustainable investment, including the consideration of environmental, social, and governance factors.”
According to a Harvard official, Jameela Pedicini, who was appointed to the position earlier this year, has already begun meeting with Harvard students.
Administrators maintain that the most effective way to address climate change and sustainability is through Harvard’s significant teaching and research on climate and environmental issues.
In her letter, Faust pointed to the academic work being done across the University, as well as the efforts of the Office for Sustainability, all of which the endowment helps to support.
“Conceiving of the endowment not as an economic resource, but as a tool to inject the University into the political process or as a lever to exert economic pressure for social purposes, can entail serious risks to the independence of the academic enterprise,” she wrote.
“The endowment is a resource, not an instrument to impel social or political change.”
There are environmentalists and academics alike who say they understand the University’s position and do not wholeheartedly support the divestment movement, although they applaud the student efforts.
