Christ’s College Council has decided to reopen discussion regarding the divestment of the College’s endowment from fossil fuels.

On 23rd April, the College Council voted unanimously to reconsider its divestment stance in the next academic year (2019-20), having in November rejected proposals to remove the College’s direct investments in oil and gas companies.

The College has been contacted for comment.

The amount the College has invested in such companies totals £1,007,000.

The move was announced to members of the College’s Governing Body at a meeting on 7th May, and has since been praised by Christ’s Climate Justice Society. On Facebook, the Society attributed the decision to “the recent divestment of several other colleges, including Downing, Queen’s and Clare Hall, in addition to the rapid growth of the climate justice movement and campaigns across the country”.

In the run up to the College Council’s initial divestment decision, campaigning from Christ’s staff and students put pressure on the College to divest.

A spokesperson of the Society noted that students had since maintained this pressure, with action pushing for the College to reconsider its decision including coordinating with Chris Bennett, CEO of environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth. Bennett spoke at the College in January 2019, and called on Christ’s to divest to be “on the right side of history”.

The Society has urged the Council to take advantage of its “second chance to tackle such an important issue” and commit to full divestment, arguing that “there is a dire need for powerful institutions such as Cambridge colleges to take decisive and symbolic action against fossil fuel companies”.

Among its direct investments, Christ’s College has £422,000 invested in mining streams company Franco Nevada, as well as £284,000 in oil fields services company Schlumberger.