Protest outside Sid Smith

Summary of President's Report: He may say his report goes "Beyond Divestment" but in fact he rejected fossil fuel divestment, disregarding the extensively researched recommendation of his ad hoc committee and the demands of his students, his faculty and countless other members of the university who called for divestment. The President instead announced he is asking the University to adopt an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Investment Policy. By adopting an ESG Investment Policy, the University of Toronto refuses to acknowledge the inherent socially injurious nature of fossil fuel companies. An ESG investment policy, as many other ESG policies do, would seemingly allow the university to stay invested in a array of fossil fuel companies with large reserves, contradicting our government’s Paris commitment to keep global temperatures below 1.5 degrees of warming which requires the vast majority of these reserves stay in the ground. The principles of the ESG policy are not defined in the report but are instead left up to the University of Toronto's Asset Management Corporation, a body that lacks and transparency and is unaccountable to UofT community. Furthermore, if the President intends ESG policies to include divestment from some fossil fuel companies, why did he not just divest from those companies now? This decision insinuates either he didn’t choose divestment and subsequent ESG principles won’t result in meaningful divestment from fossil fuel companies OR he didn’t choose divestment and intends ESG principles to cover some fossil fuel companies but was too chicken to publicly and singularly announce that he would divest from those fossil fuel companies. Either option displays frightening lack of leadership/moral courage we need to confront CC and to help those communities already being impacted. The President’s Recommendation totally ignores the urgent need to act on climate change, suggesting that tactics like ESG, shareholder activism and carbon disclosure are sufficient to encourage rapid societal shifts to carbon free economies. We cannot develop more fossil fuel reserves, we cannot pretend that fossil fuel companies like Exxon Mobil, who engaged in climate change denial and fund climate science misinformation, are interested in combatting climate change and we cannot ignore the many frontline communities that are already suffering the devastating effects of climate change and have their rights systematically violated by the fossil fuel industry. The President’s report repeatedly highlighted the University’s need to fulfill its fiduciary duty, insinuating that this requirement could be threatened by divestment. UofT350 and the ad hoc committee have refuted in detail both the alleged merits of shareholder activism and the idea that divestment is incompatible with fiduciary duty. Divestment is compatible with fiduciary duty and in fact, as a recent study by the Corporate Knights demonstrated, the University has lost $500 million by not divesting from fossil fuels earlier. The President’s decision also seems to have been based on secret working groups he established within his "senior administration" after his committee recommended he divest. He has ignored the climate science and voices of his committee, students, faculty and alumni. His report demonstrates that he does not understand the need to challenge the social license of fossil fuel companies who have a track record of blatantly abusing the rights of indigenous peoples and other minorities, spreading climate science misinformation and who, again and again, demonstrate that they are driven by nothing more than the profit-motive. The University has failed as the social leader it claims to be and in its responsibility to do all that it can to ensure that its students can look forward to a livable future. Meanwhile, the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation CEO, William Moriarity received a 57% raise this year, bringing his compensation to $1.48 million. The University has clearly demonstrated where its priorities are.

/r/UofT Thread