Harvard's New Responsible Investing Guidelines do not Include Divestment from Fossil Fuels

The exclusion of divestment from fossil fuels is an important contradictory caveat in Harvard University's newly adopted code of investment principles. Harvard's investment policies are far more than symbolic as the university oversees the world’s largest college endowment valued at $33 billion.

Shortly after hiring Jameela Pedicini as Harvard’s first vice president for sustainable investment in 2013, the university announced that it would not divest from fossil fuels despite a groundswell of protest both on and off campus.

Harvard is ignoring a trend that is sweeping across institutes of higher learning in much of the western world. A total of 500 university campuses and other institutions across America and Europe have divested from fossil fuels. While the new Harvard investment code will address a wide range of environmental and social issues, it does not oblige the school to sell off its existing fossil fuel investments.