The Global Movement

A crowd of hundreds of people on UBC's main plaza with a blue sky in the background and a person speaking into a microphone on the left. From the 2020 UBC Walkout for Wet'suwet'en.
A protest march on a city street in Bismark, North Dakota. A yellow banner in the foreground reads "We are here to protect, Water is life." Behind it, protestors and water protectors march holding various signs in front of a blue sky and buildings.
Climate Strike in Dili, East Timor. A man on a bicycle holding a child is on the left side, while a march of mostly children holding signs follows. Green trees are in the background.

Climate change is a systemic problem that threatens every aspect of our lives and is caused by anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Current atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations are at 400 parts per million (ppm), higher than at any time in the past 15 million years. This has caused 0.8˚C of warming so far, resulting in increased food scarcity, incidents of extreme weather, and rapid sea level rise.

Climate change is a problem that requires urgent action and a quick transition away from an economy based on fossil fuels in order to reduce atmospheric CO2 concentrations to a safe level, commonly agreed to be 350 ppm.

The Role of Divestment

One of the ways of limiting the power of the fossil fuel industry is for institutions to transition their investments away from fossil fuels. Achieving this transition is the core goal of the global fossil fuel divestment movement that was started by 350.org in 2008. By not supporting the fossil fuel industry financially, the movement aims to remove social license from those that are most responsible for creating climate change and in this way promote social, economic, and environmental sustainability.

An aerial view of thousands of protestors flooding the streets on campus during UBC's Climate Strike in September 2019.
16 CJUBC members holding banners that call on UBC to divest from fossil fuels. From left to right, they read “Divest UBC”, “Divest Now”, and “We Denounce The Fossil Fuel Industry.”

In 2019, after years of student activism, UBC committed to full divestment from fossil fuels by 2030!