All-Member Vote on UVICFA’s Position on Divestment From Fossil Fuels

On November 22, 2019, the UVICFA held an Extraordinary General Meeting and panel discussion to help inform a Membership vote on whether the Association should support calling on the University of Victoria to divest from fossil fuel investments. During the upcoming week, Members will be asked to vote on the following:

Notice of Motion:  THAT the Association support the campaign for UVic to divest from fossil fuels.

As per discussions at the meeting, we are posting links to information and opinions supplied to us from the panelists and Members present at the meeting.  If you have additional information on the issue of divestment from fossil fuels that you would like shared with the membership, please email them to [email protected] for consideration.

Please note that the Association does not specifically endorse any of the information linked below.

Links Panel Presentations

• Panelist 1 – Colin Goldblatt, School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria
  • Presentation: Climate Change is an Impending Crisis: We Should do Everything to Stop it Getting Even Worse
• Panelist 2 – James Rowe, Department of Environmental Studies, University of Victoria
  • Presentation: The Moral and Financial Risks of Fossil Fuel Investments in a Climate Emergency
  • Written Summary with Links: The Moral and Financial Risks of Fossil Fuel Investments in a Climate Emergency
• Panelist 3 –Elisabeth Gugl, Department of Economics, University of Victoria
  • Presentation: Is Divestment an Effective Strategy to Reduce CO2 Emissions?
• Panelist 4 – Susan Golyak, Manager, Environment, Social, and Government (ESG), Public Markets, BCI
• Panelist 5 – Jennifer Coulson, Vice President, Environment, Social, and Government (ESG), BCI
  • Presentation: BCI’s Approach to Climate Change Risk and Using Points of Influence

Links to Additional Information

• Martin Farnham, Department of Economics, University of Victoria
  • Some Arguments Against Divestment
• University of Victoria
  • Financial Planning – Short Term Investments
  • University Secretary – Responsible Investment
• BCI
  • Responsible Investing
  • Climate Action Plan
  • ESG Engagement
• University of British Columbia
  • Georgia Straight: UBC board of governors committee opts for partial and not full divestment from fossil fuel companies
  • CBC: UBC votes to divest $380M from fossil fuels, but students demand more
• Other News Articles
  • The financial sector must be at the heart of tackling climate change
  • Companies and industries that are not moving towards zero-carbon emissions will be punished by investors and go bankrupt
  • Concordia University will divest from oil, gas, coal investments by 2025
  • Canada should listen to Mark Carney’s views on costs of climate change
  • Mark Carney warns investors face ‘huge’ climate change losses