Divest DU, a committee of the DU Environmental Team (DUET), launched its campaign to support university divestment from fossil fuels this quarter.

The divest movement is a national movement focused on ending support for companies and organizations that use or support fossil fuels.

Sustainability Coordinator Chad King said there is a consensus in the scientific community that a rise of two degrees in temperature would have negative consequences for the planet. The divestment movement, therefore, encourages ending support for company behavior that could contribute to this rise.

“If we know that taking [oil] out and burning it will drive us up over two degrees … then these companies are knowingly participating in harmful activities and we should divest from them,” said King of the argument behind the divestment movement.

He explained that a good place to start the cessation of that support may be in universities.
“It’s something that is gaining momentum … the idea is that there’s a ton of money at universities in endowments, and if that money is put toward investing in renewables and investing in clean sources of energy, then not only are we making a statement about what we believe for the future, we’re also shaping that future through our clean economy,” said King.

With these ideas in mind, divest movements have been started at hundreds of universities across the nation, according to Erin Smith, founder and president of Divest DU. Smith, a sophomore strategic communications major, said the movement has gained over 450 signatures in about a month on a petition calling for DU to divest from fossil fuels.

“People are really receptive, especially at DU, as far as getting this to happen. It’s exciting that we’re already getting this much support,” said Smith.

The petition asks for the university to stop any new investments in fossil fuel companies and divest from direct ownership within the next five years. Smith says this gives the university time to reorganize their investments.

“We’re calling on the chancellor and the university to take their investments out of fossil fuels and reinvest in clean energy or whatever they choose,” she said, adding that Divest DU hopes to deliver the petition to Chancellor Robert Coombe sometime in the spring, with the hope that he will deliver it to the board of trustees with his support later in the spring.

Until then, the committee hopes to continue gathering signatures on the petition.

“We’re definitely not just going to stop [getting signatures]—we’re going to keep doing this through the next few months,” said Smith. “I’m looking forward to seeing how much student support we can get and trying to make an impact as far as future generations and the environment and hopefully making this campaign successful on campus.”

Those interested in learning more about the movement can visit the Divest University of Denver Facebook page and attend a documentary screening about the movement held by Divest DU this Wednesday, Jan. 22, at 7 p.m. in Davis Auditorium.