On 12 May, Edinburgh university announced that it would continue investing in fossil fuels. It would divest from companies extracting the worst fuels in terms of carbon emissions, coal and tar sands, but only if they ‘do not meet the criteria that we set’.
This announcement sparked a spontaneous occupation of the finance department by 30 students that lasted for 10 days.
At the end of April, the Church of England announced it had sold £12m in two of the most polluting fossil fuels: tar sands oil and thermal coal.
In April, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine became the first health research organisation in the world to sell off investments in coal companies (from its £16m endowment). Also in April, SOAS, part of London university, announced it would divest the £1.5m of its £32m endowment held in oil and gas companies (it holds no coal investments). On 18 May, Oxford university ruled out future investments in coal and tar sands from its multi-billion pound endowment.
Two groups recently announced that they would stop direct investments in all fossil fuel companies: Syracuse university at the end of March, and Guardian Media Group at the beginning of April. Both institutions have investment funds of £800m each.