At Fossil Free Cal, we know that the fossil fuel industry is both driving catastrophic climate change and harming communities through the extraction and burning of coal, oil, and natural gas. Our campus’s campaign is calling on UC Berkeley and the UC system to divest their commingled and direct holdings in the top 200 fossil fuel companies with the largest reserves of carbon. We expect and demand that the Berkeley Foundation and the UC Regents foster a future of opportunity for their students through not only their programs but their investment practices as well. Investing in climate chaos is not in line with any kind of viable future, and must stop.
Beyond the campaigns at each UC campus and the UC-wide campaign (Fossil Free UC), over 550 campaigns already exist at universities, cities, and religious institutions across North America, Europe, Australia, South Asia, and New Zealand, and momentum is only growing.
In 2013, the year the campaign launched, Fossil Free Cal had two big successes. We passed a student ballot initiative endorsing fossil fuel divestment with 73% of the student body’s support. In addition, the undergraduate academic senate passed a bill to divest its endowment from the fossil fuel industry and to endorse divestment at UC Berkeley and the UC system as a whole. Additionally, we became the first UC campus to pass a Graduate Assembly resolution in support of divestment on February 6, 2014. We hope to pass an Academic Senate resolution in the near future.
Right now, we plan on building even more power through growing faculty, student, and alumni support. Powerful opportunities for interested faculty, alumni, staff, and students exist, including our newly coordinated UC-wide faculty and alumni groups.
As one of the leading public institutions in the world, we have the privilege and the responsibility to take action where we can influence change. You can find us on Facebook here. For more information on how to get involved, shoot us an email at info@fossilfreecal.org.
Upcoming Events!
Fossil Free Cal and the US-Africa Network Present: One Struggle, Many Fronts: A Global Perspective on Climate Justice
Fossil Free Cal and the fossil fuel divestment movement are firmly grounded in solidarity with frontline communities dealing with the extraction, refinement, and exploitation of the fossil fuel industry everyday. We are honored to host Emem J. Okon, who founded the Kebetkache Women Development & Resource Centre in Nigeria, and Mithika Mwenda, who co-founded the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), along with local activists Gopal Dayaneni from Movement Generation and Ragina Johnson from the International Socialist Organization (ISO) to help show and grow the interconnectedness of local and global climate justice struggles. Join us April 1st, from 7–9 p.m. in 126 Barrows Hall for incomparable opportunity to hear about different African climate justice efforts from the activists themselves and connect those local efforts.
RSVP to the Facebook event here
Here is a calendar with our upcoming events and working group and general meetings.
March 14, 2013 UC Regents Meeting
ASUC Sustainability Team (STeam) 