April 20, 2015

SOAS academics call on university to divest ahead of crucial decision by management

London, UK — Sixty-three staff at SOAS, University of London, have signed an open letter calling on the university’s management to remove its investments from fossil fuel companies. The letter, addressed to the Director and Chair of SOAS’ Governing Body, comes ahead of a meeting of SOAS’ Governing Body later this month, where a final decision on divestment will be made.

The letter states SOAS’ “indisputable ethical duty to remove its investments from fossil fuel companies,” based on the urgency of the climate crisis and the human rights abuses perpetrated by fossil fuels companies. Many of the countries likely to be hit hardest by the impacts of climate change are the focus of research at SOAS, which specialises in the study of Asia, Africa and the Near and Middle East. The letter demands that SOAS shows “leadership through encouraging a transition towards alternative, environmentally and socially sustainable forms of energy.” Over 1,000 students have also signed a petition in support of divestment at SOAS, and two unanimous Student Union motions have passed in favour of the decision. 

SOAS currently has approximately £1.5 million invested in the fossil fuel industry. The university’s management froze new investments in the industry last June, in order to consider the case for divestment in more detail. Staff and students are hopeful that the Governing Body will make a final decision later this month, which would see SOAS becoming the first institution in the University of London, and the third university in the UK to ban investments in fossil fuels.

The divestment campaign at SOAS is part of a global movement of academic, public and political institutions that are removing their shares from fossil fuel companies and demanding action on climate change. So far, over 180 institutions representing assets of more than $50bn have divested, including 25 universities and colleges, the Rockefeller Foundation, the British Medical Association, and the World Council of Churches.

Dr Leandro Vergara-Camus, who studies the impacts of climate change and extractive industries at SOAS’ Department of Development Studies, said:

“I support divestment from fossil fuels because I believe public institutions like universities should function and take decisions according to different principles than those related to the maximisation of profits. On top of the fact that oil companies are significantly contributing to climate change, they have a long history of involvement in violent conflicts, destruction of the environment, population displacement, and gross human rights violations in the developing world. There are no good reasons for SOAS to continue to invest in the fossil fuel sector.”

Andrew Taylor, Campaigns Manger at People & Planet, which supports university divestment campaigns across the UK said:

“With decisions imminent at SOAS, Edinburgh, UCL, Oxford and Warwick, this is poised to be the spring of the UK divestment movement. Staff standing shoulder to shoulder with students shows how hard it’s going to be for universities to say no to divestment.”

ENDS

Contact:

For more information, contact Rebecca Newsom of Fossil Free SOAS, on 07715 563391 or info@fossilfreesoas.org

Notes for editors:

SOAS management are due to make a final decision on divestment at the end of April 2015

The letter from SOAS staff is copied in full below.

The letter has been signed by staff from across 21 different academic departments, as well as administration at SOAS

Strong student support exists for divestment at SOAS: two unanimous Student Union motions have been passed in favour of divestment, as well as a petition with over 1,000 student signatures

More information about the global fossil fuel divestment movement can be found here: https://gofossilfree.org

Full letter from SOAS Staff:

Dear Professor Paul Webley CBE and Dr Tim Miller,

We write to express our deep concern about SOAS’s investments in the fossil fuel industry, and call on the School’s Governing Body to approve the decision to divest from fossil fuels at its next meeting in April 2015.

We congratulate the School for freezing new investments in fossil fuels since November 2014. SOAS is a leader in research on the environment and sustainability, and is known for its concern for issues relating to global justice and equality. However, the School’s remaining investments in the fossil fuel industry are completely at odds with our community’s values and core ethos as an institution. Moreover, these investments directly contradict SOAS’s mission to “actively seek to embed good environmental practice at an institutional level”. [1]

The urgency of the climate crisis is unequivocal. Without rapid action now to ensure that two thirds of today’s proven fossil fuel reserves remain unburned, the planet will warm by 4 degrees by 2060. [2] This will trigger catastrophic social, environmental, economic and political effects, and will hit many of the most vulnerable regions of the world hardest – many of which are the focus of our research. [3]

Beyond being culpable for producing nearly two-thirds of all greenhouse gas emissions since the pre-industrial era [4], fossil fuel companies are also responsible for intolerable human rights abuses. For example, Shell remains complicit in on-going violations against the Ogoni people of Nigeria and other communities in the Niger Delta region. BHP Billiton has caused the displacement of native and other at-risk communities in areas such as northern Columbia, where the Cerejon mine endangers the health and livelihoods of 13,000 local inhabitants.

We therefore believe that SOAS has an indisputable ethical duty to remove its investments from fossil fuel companies now, and to show leadership through encouraging a transition towards alternative, environmentally and socially sustainable forms of energy.

We note that, according to the School’s asset managers, a decision to divest would have negligible impacts on the school’s financial returns. Divestment also has the backing of over 1,000 SOAS students, as well being the subject of two unanimous Student Union Motions.

Divestment represents a crucial opportunity for SOAS to join what is already a rapidly growing movement of over 180 institutions across the world taking a stand against climate change, while demanding more environmentally and socially just forms of energy. In the UK, the Universities of Glasgow and Bedfordshire have already divested, as well as many other universities in the US, the British Medical Association, the World Council of Churches, 38 city authorities, the multi-billion dollar Rockefeller Foundation, and the world’s richest sovereign wealth fund in Norway. SOAS has the opportunity to be the first university in London to divest, if it makes the decision this April.

Now is the time to take action and invest for the future. We call on the Governing Body to divest from fossil fuels this April.

Signed:

Professor Gilbert Achcar, Professor of Development Studies and International Relations, Department of Development Studies

Professor Nadje Al-Ali, Professor of Gender Studies, Centre for Gender Studies

Ms Renata Albuquerque, Project Manager, Academic Development Directorate

Dr Richard Alexander, Lecturer in Financial Law, Department of Financial and Management Studies

Emeritus Professor Tony Allan, Professorial Research Associate, Department of Development Studies

Professor Gina Barnes, Professorial Research Associate, Department of the History of Art and Archaeology

Dr Stephanie Blankenburg, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics

Antonia Bright, Representation Assistant, SOAS Students’ Union

Dr John Campbell, Reader in the Anthropology of Africa and Law, Department for Sociology and Anthropology

Dr Charles Chang, Lecturer in Language Acquisition and Language Socialisation, Linguistics Department

Dr Lindiwe Dovey, Senior Lecturer in African Film and Performance Arts, Department of African Languages and Cultures

Professor Rosaleen Duffy, Professor of Political Ecology of Development, Department of Development Studies

Dr Nada Elzeer, Senior Lecturer in Arabic, Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle East

Dr Matthew Eagleton-Pierce, Lecturer in International Political Economy, Department of Politics and International Studies

Chris Gutkind, SOAS Library

Dr Rachel Harris, Reader in Ethnomusicology, Music Department

Professor Barbara Harriss-White, Professorial Research Associate, Department of Development Studies

Dr Rachel Harrison, Reader in Thai Cultural Studies, Associate Dean for Research, Department for Languages and Cultures

Dr Jörg Haustein, Lecturer in Religions in Africa, Department for the Study of Religion

Dr Sian Hawthorne, Lecturer in Critical Theory & The Study of Religions, Department for the Study of Religion

Professor Kevin Jon Heller, Professor of Criminal Law, School of Law

Dr Feyzi Ismail, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Development Studies

Dr Andrea Janku, Senior Lecturer in the History of China, Department of History

Dr Lars Laamann, Lecturer in the History of China, Department of History

Feja Lesniewska, Senior Teaching Fellow, School of Law and Co-convenor of Climate Change Law (LLM/MA)

Helen Lidis, Faculty Officer, Faculty of Languages and Cultures

Dr Christopher Lucas, Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics, Department of Linguistics

Dr James Mallinson, Lecturer in Sanskrit and Classical Indian Studies, Department of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia

Dr Mahnaz Marashi, Senior Teaching Fellow, Anthropology Department

Dr Thomas Marois, Senior Lecturer in Development Studies, Department of Development Studies

Steven Mayfield, Learning Media Production Assistant 

Lisa McSweeney, Team Leader Student Support, Faculty of Languages and Cultures

Dr Alessandra Mezzadri, Lecturer in Development Studies, Department of Development Studies

Caroline Miller, Disability Services Administrative Assistant

Professor Peter Mollinga, Professor of Development Studies, Department of Development Studies

Lorenza Monaco, PhD Candidate, GTA Political Economy of Development, Department of Development Studies

Buket Morrison, Senior Analyst Programmer, CSBS

Matthew Murphy, Summer Programme Co-ordinator, International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies (IFCELS)

Dr Ben Murtagh, Senior Lecturer in Indonesian and Malay, Department for Languages and Cultures of South East Asia

Paniz Musawi Natanzi, MPhil/ PhD and GTA, Centre for Gender Studies

Lucy Nabijou, Assistant Academic Advisor, International Foundation Courses and English Language Studies

Sandy Nicoll, Library and Information Services Executive Officer

Dr Barbara Pizziconi, Reader in Applied Japanese Linguistics, Department of the Languages and Cultures of Japan and Korea

Dr Yoriko Otomo, Lecturer, Centre for the Study of Colonialism, Empire and International Law

Dr Dan Plesch, Director and Reader, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy

Dr Tim Pringle, Senior Lecturer in Labour, Social Movements and Development, Department of Development Studies

Dr Manjeet Ramgotra, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Politics and International Studies

Dr Rahul Rao, Senior Lecturer in Politics, Department of Politics and International Studies

Dr Kirsty Rowan, Senior Teaching Fellow, Department of Linguistics

Dr Meera Sabaratnam, Lecturer in International Relations, Department of Politics and International Studies

Alexander Saunders, Distance Learning Assistant, Postgraduate Distance Learning

Dr Subir Sinha, Senior Lecturer in Institutions and Development, Department of Development Studies

Professor Annabelle Sreberny, Professor of Global Media and Communications, School of Arts

Dr Tuukka Toivonen, Lecturer in International Management, Department of Financial and Management Studies

Dr Joseph Trapido, British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Anthropology and Sociology Department

Eliane Vicente Tsarouhis, E-services Assistant

Dr Frauke Urban, Senior Lecturer in Environment and Development, Centre for Development, Environment and Policy CeDEP

Dr Elisa Van Waeyenberge, Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics

Dr Leandro Vergara-Camus, Lecturer in Theory, Policy and Practice of Development, Department of Development Studies

Dr Ulrich Volz, Senior Lecturer in Economics, Department of Economics

Dr Yair Wallach, Pears Lecturer in Israeli Studies, Department of Near and Middle East

David Wearing, PhD candidate and GTA, Department of Development Studies

Professor John Weeks, Professor Emeritus of Development Economics, Department of Development Studies

[1] https://www.soas.ac.uk/corevalues/

[2]  International Energy Agency (2013), World Energy Outlook 2013 and International Energy Agency (2012), World Energy Outlook 2012 

[3]  World Bank (2013), Turn Down the Heat: Climate Extremes, Regional Impacts and the Case for Resilience

[4]  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/20/90-companies-man-made-global-warming-emissions-climate-change

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