Fossil Fuel Divestment

Note: this article was written by Vihaan Chaturvedy

As climate change continues to be the most pressing global issue, high schools across the globe are taking steps towards a more sustainable future. One movement gaining lots of momentum in recent years is the push for energy divestment—to urge high schools to shift their investment from fossil fuels into renewable energy.

Fossil fuels are an industry that plenty of schools, colleges, and cities invest into, powering a lot of technology for institutions and cities. Fossil fuels do efficiently power technology, however, these fossil fuels have a terrible impact on the planet, which is that they emit carbon emissions, the primary contributor to global warming. These carbon emissions get trapped in the atmosphere, leading to the increase of temperature worldwide, resulting in glaciers melting and sea levels rising. Luckily, there is an alternative to fossil fuels, which is renewable energy. Renewable energy is great for the environment, as it doesn’t emit nearly as much carbon emissions, and also creates millions of jobs around the world.

Currently, many politicians and companies are trying to make the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but even high school students are helping make this transition as smooth as possible. HSCleanInvest is a coalition of over 50 schools around the world, in which these schools are working to persuade their school administrators to stop investing in fossil fuels. These students are working with their schools to sell off all the fossil fuel investments that are currently there, and redirect this money towards investing in renewable energy companies. Some schools, like The Nueva School in California, have already completely ended their investments in fossil fuels.

Numerous different colleges have already fully shifted away from fossil fuels, including notable universities such as Harvard and Brown. Several other universities have also stopped the direct investment towards fossil fuels, no longer having any direct relation to the industry. Many nations have done the same, including Ireland, Norway, and Sweden, along with a few major cities, including New York City, Paris, and Auckland.

These institutions, cities, and schools have been focusing on redirecting a majority of their money towards companies and technologies working on mitigating climate change, such as clean infrastructure and transportation systems, along with the implementation of solar panels and wind turbines. All of this new divestment into clean energy will lead to a better future for billions, and a world in which the renewable energy sector will continue to thrive.