The University of Toronto (U of T) school newspaper reports it has finally decided to ignore calls for divestment, despite years of protests from anti-fossil fuel student groups.
U of T President Meric Gertler, in a presidential response to calls for a fossil fuel purge, stamped down the supposed benefits associated with divestment.
Coal and oil producers account for “one-quarter of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions, with the balance produced by other sectors such as transportation, housing and manufacturing,” Gertler said.
Gertler added: “Building on the Committee’s advice, an approach that considers ESG [environmental, social, and governance] factors – including climate-related risk – as they pertain to all sectors of our economy would seem to offer the best chance of success in meeting the challenge of climate change, while fulfilling our fiduciary duties to the University’s pension and endowment fund beneficiaries.”
The response, titled “Beyond Divestment: Taking Decisive Action on Climate Change,” has not been released to the general public.
In lieu of a complete divestment, the school instead will direct its investors, the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, to “articulate principles that will enable consideration of ESG factors in undertaking direct investments.”
Additionally, it recommends the school sign the Carbon Disclosure Project, an organization in the United Kingdom aimed at helping shareholders disclose carbon emissions.
The Presidential Advisory Committee on Divestment from Fossil Fuels has been awaiting a response from Gertler since it sent a report Dec. 15 to the administration advising fossil fuel divestment motions.
In its report, the committee stated “fossil fuel firms engaging in activities that blatantly disregard the 1.5-degree threshold are engaging egregiously in socially injurious behaviour […] The University should, in a targeted and principled manner, divest from its direct holdings in such firms.”
The school’s divestment protesters criticized the president’s decision, calling it unthinkable considering the fact he seemingly went against his own committee’s suggestions.
The president chose “to accept a decision made by secret working groups of his senior executive not included in U of T’s investment policy,” Amanda Harvey-Sanchez, a student at U of T and supporter of divestment, said in a press statement from 350.org, an environmentalist group advocating divestment.
“By rejecting divestment as recommended by the committee, the President plans to maintain U of T’s investments in companies which the committee stated are imposing grave social injury. My school should not be trying to profit from the oil sands and fracking companies that are actively thwarting progress on climate change,” she added.
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