Harvard University plans to end its investments in fossil fuels, the school’s president said, drawing praise from divestment activists who had long pressed the leading university to exit these holdings. In a letter posted on Harvard’s website, Lawrence Bacow, School’s President, said the school’s endowment had no direct investments in fossil fuel exploration or development companies as of June and will not make such investments in the future “given the need to decarbonize the economy.”
The university’s indirect investments in the fossil fuel industry “are in runoff mode,” he added. The indirect investments were made through private equity funds and make up less than 2% of the endowment, Bacow wrote.
Recently valued at about $42 billion, the most in any university, the school’s endowment has been under fire for years from alumni, students and other activists to sell their fossil fuel holdings as a way to slow climate change.
