Oxford University urged to purge its £3.3bn fund of fossil fuel investments

Students and dons at 14 Oxford colleges have urged the university to purge its £3.3bn endowment fund of all investments in fossil fuel companies. The move follows 64 Oxford professors and other senior academics signing an open letter and a petition by over 800 students, staff and alumni.

The University of Oxford is believed to have the largest investments in fossil fuel companies of any UK university. It is now consulting business, academics and others on whether it should follow some US universities which have comitted to sell off their fossil fuel investments. The results of the Oxford consultation will be considered by the university's socially responsible investment review committee in July and a formal recommendation made to the university council later this year.

In their open letter, academics argue that Oxford has a "responsibility to show leadership in tackling one of the greatest challenges we as a society currently face." Signatories to the letter include Lord Robert May, former chief scientific adviser to the UK government, Lesley Gray, professor of atmospheric physics, and Gordon Clark, current director of Oxford University's Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.

"We at Oxford like to claim the mantle of intellectual leadership," said Henry Shue, professor of politics and international relations. "Here is our opportunity to display genuine leadership when it counts."

"We can only burn 20% of the carbon in the proven fossil fuel reserves. We'll have reached that limit in 16 years at present rates of consumption. Now we have a carbon bubble, of unreal value. It is too risky to own shares in this bubble. It has to burst, and will burst if we are sane and want to avoid dangerous climate change," said Brenda Boardman, emeritus Oxford fellow at the Environmental Change Institute.

According to student pressure group People and Planet, 46 UK universities are now being pressed by their staff, students and alumni to divest themselves of about £5.2bn in fossil fuel investments. Edinburgh and Glasgow universities are expected to make a decision later this year.

The moves by UK universities follow an escalating global campaign to push universities to sell off their holdings in fossil fuels. Earlier this year 129 Harvard professors accused the world's richest university of a "failure of leadership" on climate change and called on it to purge its nearly $33bn (£20bn) endowment of all holdings in fossil fuel companies. Nine US colleges have so far committed to selling off their stocks.

The UN and the World Bank have both endorsed divestment as a way of fighting climate change.

"Continuing to invest in companies fuelling the climate crisis is not only morally bankrupt but also financially imprudent and Oxford should heed the warnings of its own respected academics. Ultimately, ignoring the growing student-led Fossil Free campaign will put the university on the wrong side of history and damage its hard-earned reputation and its £3.3bn endowment," said James Farndon, Fossil Free campaign co-ordinator, at People & Planet.