At this time last year, the Climate Commons collected over 500 signatures for our letter to the upper administration at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ U urging the university to bring its campus operations, teaching, and research into line with the demands of the climate crisis. We’re grateful that the president formed a Climate Response Committee, chaired by the VP (Research and Int’l), Rafik Goubran. This Teach-In will provide an update on the committee’s work to date. Please join us to learn more and to add your own insights to this process.

Various members of the Climate Response Committee will be in attendance to reflect on their experiences and to answer questions.

UdeM Divests Following Week-long Occupation!
L’UniversitĂ© de MontrĂ©al has committed to full divestment by 2025 following a 5 day student occupation led by l’Ecothèque! This win demonstrates the power of student-led direct action. Huge congrats to the hundreds of students that have been working on this for close to a decade. More info Ěý˛ą˛Ô»ĺĚý. You can also check out UdeM and l’Ecothèque’s statement (in French) .

Here are further details on the event from the leadnow website:

Following Wet’suwet’en Leadership and Land Defenders in Gidimt’en Checkpoint, as well as participating in this Global Day of Action, we will shine a spotlight on the planet-killing investments RBC continues to make, and articulate the need for a united front against those who profit from human rights abuses and climate destruction.

We are calling for defunding of CGL and all other fossil fuel expansion projects.

RBC is the biggest funder of fossil fuels in Canada (5th in the world). It has poured over $200 Billion into fossil fuels since the Paris climate agreement was signed.

On November 1st, the UN climate conference in Glasgow (COP26) will begin, with a focus on climate finance. This gives us a crucial opportunity to pressure RBC into ceasing to finance fossil fuels and respect Indigenous rights.

The Wet’suwet’en have released a letter calling on Canadian banks and other investors to withdraw their funding for Coastal Gas Link (CGL) and TC Energy. There is a toolkit available for people who would like to participate in the action and amplify their message over social media and email. The toolkit contains suggested Tweets and FB posts, as well as an email template for emailing the executives of the financial institutions financing CGL and thereby the transgression of Indigenous rights on unceded traditional territory.

Climate Action ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ is a student-led activist group founded in 2019. Both on and off the ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ campus, Climate Action ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ lobbies those who have the power to make impactful climate-related decisions that are essential for the future of ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´â€™s students and the welfare of our community, country, and of our world. At ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ we work to hold executive actors at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ like the Board of Governors, the President and the Chancellor, as well as CUSA, our student union, accountable for their actions and inactions.

In October 2020, Climate Action ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ launched our divestment campaign, called #MakeMyDegreeFossilFree. #MakeMyDegreeFossilFree is a campaign to have both ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and the University of Ottawa divest their Endowment Funds from the fossil fuel industry. Working closely with student organizers at the University of Ottawa, our goal is to have both endowments divested, and reinvested in sustainable and just alternatives, by 2025.

Emissions from fossil fuels are one of the main drivers of global warming. Worldwide, the fossil fuel industry is currently set to burn five times more coal, oil, and natural gas than our planet can handle. By divesting our endowments from the industry, ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University and the University of Ottawa would send a very clear message to industry and investors, the federal government, and to schools around the country that the fossil fuel industry is no longer tolerable. Moreover, it would help to put pressure towards enacting a just transition of Canadian energy — a transition that has become increasingly likely as the Canadian fossil fuel industry has collapsed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To accomplish this goal and to help push towards a transition, Climate Action ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ is seeking support from all stakeholders at ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ University including departments, workers unions, students, alumni and more. If you want to support our campaign and learn more, please find our open letter below (the link to our petition is attached therein). Thank you for taking the time to support our futures!

“We represent a diverse group of academics working at universities and colleges across Canada who can no longer stand by in the face of human-driven climate change. In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published an alarming report confirming that climate change is posing a serious and unprecedented threat to the diversity and stability of life on earth. We face the imminent possibility of global eco-system collapse and mass social upheaval, and have little time to act. For this reason, we the undersigned are united in the call for the Canadian government to take radical action in addressing the climate emergency. We are also united in the call for Canadian universities to divest funds from the fossil fuel industry that is contributing to the climate crisis, and to redirect investments toward the renewable energy sector and other climate-enhancing technologies.

In doing so, we support the efforts of the international group Extinction Rebellion (XR), which is calling attention to our extreme predicament. With XR, we are particularly concerned about the threshold for runaway climate change, which would lead to irreversible catastrophic changes that would impact us all. To keep below the 1.5°C increase in temperature that the IPCC report strongly urges we do not exceed, we must cut global CO₂emissions by 45% by the year 2030. As an affluent country that has historically emitted vastly more than the global average, Canada has a moral and practical responsibility to reduce its emissions much faster than the average rate. Allocating Canada a share of emissions remaining under 1.5°C proportional to its population size would require full decarbonization by 2025, aligning with XR’s demand.

To meet this target, we must begin substantially reducing emissions as rapidly as possible — this means that after decades of intransigence, inaction, and rising emissions, we cannot afford to delay a moment longer. Given the extremely small window of time we have, nothing less than the drastic, systemic changes XR demands are necessary: 1) that the Canadian government acknowledge the climate emergency — not just rhetorically but in how it acts — by using its powers to make the threat of the climate emergency as widely known as possible; 2) that the Canadian government enact legally-binding policies to halt biodiversity loss and reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2025; 3) that the transition be supervised by a citizen assembly endowed with decision-making powers, in order to ensure an effective and equitable process; and 4) that the energy transition is just for all Canadians, especially those already marginalized and neglected in the current economy.

Standing with XR, we are thus demanding that the Canadian government enact laws for a mobilization of society not seen since the Second World War to meet the 2025 net zero CO2 emissions target.

And because Canada’s past and future warming is double that of the global average, destroying the fabric of life of the Inuit and other indigenous groups and contributing to their ongoing oppression, we also demand, with XR, that our government collaborates with indigenous members of society in our country and around the world toward climate justice. Strong collaborations, as well as protections, must also be systemically created with and for the poor in both affluent nations and in the Global South, those who face economic persecution simply because of their race, religion, sexuality or gender, and anyone who has been most affected by unchecked resource extraction in the service of an economic system that promises unsustainable growth.

We refuse to continue supporting politicians who claim to be concerned about climate change while simultaneously approving oil pipelines, tar sands mines, and gas liquefaction facilities. Our current government is not proposing the bold and swift action that is necessary. It is our moral duty to demand that they do. We have just a few short years to avoid irreversible catastrophe. We demand climate justice.”

Representatives from the student group Divest UWinnipeg have criticized the school’s decision to pursue strategic alternatives to a full divestment from fossil fuels. The university has been consulting with the group for the past year. The group has asked the University of Winnipeg Foundation and pension board of trustees to end all investments in stocks and bonds of fossil fuel companies. This Monday, the school’s board of regents asked the foundation to instead create a responsible investment policy that applies  criteria. “The U of W’s choice not to divest from fossil fuels represents a contradiction with its commitments to sustainability, Indigenization and, ultimately, reconciliation,” said UWinnipeg Student Association Preisdent Kevin Settee. UWinnipeg Senior Executive Officer Chris Minaker responded that the school “has adopted a balanced approach to the divestment issue which is consistent with actions taken by other universities in Canada.”

The Student and Faculty Associations at the University of Winnipeg have asked the school to withdraw all of its investments in fossil fuels. The request applies specifically to fossil fuel stocks currently included in the portfolios of the University of Winnipeg Foundation and the school’s pension fund. The university reportedly has almost $2.6 M, or 5% of its foundation endowment invested in oil, gas, or coal industries, while the value of such investments contained in the pension fund is unknown. A public forum involving representatives from the community, the faculty, and the student body was held at the school yesterday to discuss the current and future direction of the divestment movement.

The University of British Columbia has reportedly proposed a $10 M sustainability fund instead of divesting from fossil fuel companies, despite last year’s majority vote by both UBC students and faculty in favour of fossil fuel divestment. The decision was frustrating, said UBCC350 Co-ordinator and UBC student Alex Hemingway, “what we’ve seen at UBC is two decisive referendum votes from faculty and staff in favour of divestment that the committee has chosen to ignore.” UBC Vice-president of External Relations and Communications Philip Steenkamp released a statement saying that the finance committee had concluded that divestment may not have its desired impact on climate change or corporate behaviour, and “would not be consistent with the board’s fiduciary obligation to endowment donors.” The board of governors will reportedly vote on the proposal on February 15th.