Selwyn College has updated its investment policy to impose stricter requirements on the College’s investments in funds with holdings in fossil fuels.

The College also aims to set a timescale for migrating investments to funds “which prioritise good environmental, social and governance practices”, although no date has been set so far.

The new policy was agreed by the College’s Investment Committee in January, and approved by the College Council on 16th February.

A statement from the College “will need to take account of long-term structural economic change, in particular with respect to the impact of climate change and moves towards decarbonisation.”

Selwyn will not immediately divest from funds with holdings in fossil fuels, but will limit investments to funds which invest a maximum of 3% of their resources in fossil fuels by April 2021, and a maximum of 1% by the end of 2022. The threshold specified by the College’s previous investment policy is 5%.

The new policy defines good environmental, social, and governance practices (ESG) and states the College will “research and identify funds which have investment policies that meet that definition”.

The College will also use its “voting power as shareholders to support shareholder resolutions which are aligned with these policies”.

Selwyn sold all its direct holdings in fossil fuels in 2019, and has disinvested from tobacco and arms manufacturers.

The announcement follows commitments in the past week from Pembroke College (17/02) and Trinity College (22/02) to fully divest from fossil fuels.