Stanford University Board of Trustees: The Time to Divest From Fossil Fuels is NOW

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Stanford University Board of Trustees: The Time to Divest From Fossil Fuels is NOW

Trustees of Stanford University

Stanford's Board of Trustees has famously resisted calls to divest from oil and gas holdings for a decade, since before divesting from coal in 2014. In 2016 they voted not to divest from oil and gas. In 2018 they adopted policies on ethical investing and "investment responsibility" that reserve divestment for companies whose "abhorrent and ethically unjustifiable" activities include "apartheid, genocide, human trafficking, slavery, and violations of child labor laws.” On June 10-11, the policies will be tested when the Trustees consider fossil fuel divestment proposals once again, from the Associated Students of Stanford University and Fossil Free Stanford.

The University of California has divested from fossil fuels for financial reasons. UC sold their risky holdings in oil, gas, and coal because they were a drag on the bottom lines of the endowment and the pension system. Plenty of data shows that portfolios do not suffer when fossil fuel stocks are removed.

This time, it's time to divest.

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350 Silicon Valley

To: Trustees of Stanford University
From: [Your Name]

Now is the time for Stanford to divest from fossil fuels. We urge the Board of Trustees to act in the interest of the human family and the health of our planet—as well as the Stanford community and the strength of the endowment—and divest now. Join the University of California, the University of Massachusetts, Cornell University, and Oxford University, and divest.