The Students’ Union is always more than happy to support campaigns that our students are passionate about. A group of our students are running a Fossil Free campaign at the University of Huddersfield, you can read more about their campaign below.

Although we now know that the University of Huddersfield does screen for fossil fuels, which is fantastic news, the ‘Fossil Free Huddersfield University’ campaign wants the University to go one step further and sign the Fossil Free Declaration. The Fossil Free Declaration is a public commitment to refusing any fossil fuel investments in the future. We need institutions like universities to take a public stand against the fossil fuel industry on our behalf. The campaign recently got a massive boost when 50 staff signed an Open Letter to the University supporting our call for a Fossil Free Declaration.

Here are just some of the reasons why we're campaigning on this issue:

Josh, Postgraduate Student:

We need the University to take a stand against the fossil fuel energy companies. The University is a forward-thinking place of education, fossil fuels are not sustainable and the effects from the production of fossil fuel kills our planet. With these facts in mind, I became involved in the campaign, I simply couldn’t justify not doing so. 

Sam, Postgraduate Student:

It always struck me as weird that we have an ever-growing economy on a planet of finite resources and we continue to invest in finite resources, even though this is certain to lead to problems in our future. In a few years, combustion-based energy may even become obsolete, especially in the wake of up-and-coming state-of-the-art technologies that can harvest the nascent potential of solar energy. So even if people ignore the ever-looming consequences of global warming, looking at reinvestment from fossil fuels to renewable energy makes sense when you consider that our finite resources will eventually be depleted. But long before your fossil fuel investments start to dry up and make no financial returns, the planet will have undergone irreparable damage to it’s environment that will impact the lives of many people as mass flooding ensues from reckless fossil fuel consumption.

Chayley, Huddersfield Friends of the Earth:

I first got into environmental activism 25 years ago when I was a student myself. The fact that we have not made any progress on stopping climate change during the intervening time is largely down to the power and influence of the fossil fuel industry which has continually thwarted our efforts to take action.

Recent research has found that up to 80% of known fossil fuel reserves need to stay in the ground to stay within safe climate limits. What I like about the #fossilfree divestment movement is that it takes back our power and goes on the offensive against the climate-wrecking fossil fuel companies. We're asking public institutions like universities, local councils and churches to cut their financial links with fossil fuels as a way of removing their social license and therefore their power and influence. I like the fact that just a small group of people can potentially make a big difference. Every time a university makes a Fossil Free commitment it has a domino effect on other universities and spreads a strong message about fossil fuels needing to stay in the ground. A third of UK universities have already made public Fossil Free commitments and we're calling on The University of Huddersfield to join them NOW!

Get involved

Sign the petition:

https://campaigns.gofossilfree.org/petitions/divest-huddersfield-university-from-fossil-fuels

Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FossilFreeHuddsUni/

Follow us on Twitter:@DivestKirklees

Email: huddersfieldfoe@yahoo.co.uk to join Fossil Free Huddersfield University group

Wael Alenzi

SU President