Faculty voted at their monthly meeting on a resolution supporting Brandeis’ Commitment to the Paris Climate Accords and encouraging the Board of Trustees to act on fossil fuel divestment. Committee members of Faculty Against Climate Threat (FACT) finalized their resolution on climate change for the university, and on Friday, Oct. 20, a majority of faculty voted to approve it. The ultimate decision on divestment rests with the Board of Trustees.
Fossil fuel divestment is the process of removing stocks and bonds from both companies that distribute fossil fuels and support the use of fossil fuels.
The resolution as a whole praises University President Liebowitz for signing onto the Paris Agreement and commending Provost Lisa Lynch for strengthening the campus sustainability campaign. When President Donald Trump decided to remove the U.S. from the Paris Agreement this past June, Liebowitz joined other university presidents, governors and local officials in voicing their continued commitment to the accord. The Agreement is a global commitment to hold the warming of Earth to under two degrees Celsius and move the world toward an era of sustainable energy. The faculty resolution supports Brandeis in its pledge to “take forceful action,” to uphold the global effort.
The final line of the resolution states that “recognizing the leadership role Brandeis University can play in modeling civic action and also the responsibility of the Trustees to protect and grow endowment funds,” the board should act on fossil fuel divestment at “the fastest pace that is consistent with our contractual commitments.”
This resolution has been years in the making. In early spring of 2013, more than 79 percent of Brandeis students voiced their support of fossil fuel divestment, according to a document from Professor Sabine von Mering (ENVS/GRALL/WMGS).
This led then-president Fred Lawrence to establish a committee to explore the possibility of fossil fuel divestments and its implications for Brandeis. Two years later in February 2015, 150 faculty members along with student activists hand-delivered a fossil fuel divestment petition, urging the Board of Trustees and administration to take action on the growing issue. The administrators did not respond, and faculty founded FACT. Since this period, student divestment activists groups like Brandeis Climate Justice (BCJ) and Students for Environmental Action (SEA) sought to involve student participation in rallies and protests to vocalize the student body’s support of fossil fuel divestment.
Prof. von Mering also noted programs like the Divest Fund for would-be donors that support fossil fuel divestment. The Fund works in conjunction with over 30 colleges that have agreed to participate in divestment, including many schools in the greater Boston area. This non-profit organization holds up to $500,000 in donations for each school in fossil free mutual funds as well as cash reserve funds. When a university commits to divest, the money is given back to the university. At the end of 2017, schools who have not chosen to divest will lose the opportunity to retain these funds, and the organization will distribute them equally among schools who have committed to divest. This deadline stems from the International Energy Agency’s World Outlook Report citing that no new fossil fuel infrastructure can be built starting in 2018.
Prof. von Mering is active in climate change activism. She is a founding member of FACT, the faculty representative on the student-run Sustainability Committee and is also involved with the Mandel Humanities Center Working Group on Climate Change. Raised in Germany, a country at the forefront of sustainability in Europe, von Mering hopes that the United States can reach the same level of sustainability as Germany.
“When you know the facts about global warming you have a choice: You can either silently ignore it or ring the alarm bells. As a German I have been taught that silently ignoring a big problem is deeply wrong,” she told The Brandeis Hoot.
Divestment is not the only way to combat climate change and fossil fuels, von Mering agrees. In a 2015 interview with The Hoot, the sustainability manager said that “the fastest way to send fossil fuel companies a message is to use less energy and show that we do not support the unbridled usage of their product.” Mary Fischer, manager of sustainability programs at Brandeis, has taken up initiatives to lower energy use on campus during her approximately two years here.
Von Mering noted politicians often rely on subsidies from fossil fuel companies to fund their campaigns, which places these companies in power within the government. “[W]hy don’t people use public transportation and renewable energy? Why are electric cars not cheaper than gas-powered cars? Because the fossil fuel industry has been preventing politicians from doing what needs to be done,” she argued.
Von Mering cites “a major scandal in New England right now where utility companies are pushing for more new fossil fuel infrastructure based on data they themselves manipulated,” and also noted fossil fuels receive “twice as much in subsidies as renewables.”
Student activist groups on campus, such as those in BCJ, have been involved in divestment action. Cacildia Cain, an Environmental Studies major and active member in BCJ, believes that, “Brandeis having money invested in the fossil fuel industry is not upholding its reputation of social justice and supporting the companies that are contributing to climate change…any Brandeis student who prides themselves on social justice should also not feel comfortable [about] this.” BCJ will be holding rallies, call-ins, petitions and tabling to encourage the Board of Trustees to discuss divestment at their meeting rather than putting off the discussion. Off-campus, von Mering also “work[s] with 350Mass Action in my spare time, and we spearheaded a pledge for candidates to reject money from fossil fuels.”
