This information was sought in light of a successful campaign led by Fossil Free TCD, which saw Trinity agree to divest its €6.1 million indirect investments in fossil fuel companies.

Niall O’Sullivan, a PhD candidate within the School of Archaeology, has been one campaigner investigating this issue together with UCD Students’ Union (UCDSU) and the College Tribune. He told the Tribune he was happy with the news, but noted that ‘choice in investment is only one way in which we disturb the planet’. He would like to see UCD proudly affirm that there are no investments in fossil fuels and that they intend to keep it that way. O’Sullivan said that there is no single solution to climate change ‘and that is why I think all faculties of UCD have a role to play’.

In recent years, the pressure for other universities worldwide to divest their investments from the fossil fuel industry has increased. Campaigns by students and faculties alike, across the United Kingdom and United States, including Boston University, Harvard, Oxford, the University of Glasgow and many others, are calling on their universities to find alternative investments for their endowments.

UCD’s mission is to contribute to the flourishing of Dublin, Ireland, Europe and the world and they wish to do this through promoting sustainability. By avoiding investing in fossil fuel companies and through its involvement in Energy Systems Integration Partnership Programme (ESIPP), UCD are helping to pave the way to tackling global climate change.

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