Take action on pensions funding fossil fuels at your university
Are you a student or staff at a UK university wanting to take action on university pensions funding fossil fuels?
USS is the UK’s largest pension scheme, and it quietly invests hundreds of millions of pounds in the fossil fuel industry even as over a hundred universities have divested: university money is still going to the fossil fuel industry. As USS covers UK university and higher education staff, they serve us: we must take action and make clear to USS that they need to divest from fossil fuels.
SOS-UK’s campaign Breaking the Bank has produced a template paper to be submitted to university finance committees in support of the Divest USS campaign, asking universities to break their silence and take action on USS funding fossil fuels.
How to take action
If you have any questions or need support, please contact breakingthebank@sos-uk.org
For students and staff:
E-mail your student union officer team with a link to this post, requesting that they submit the template paper to their university finance committee. You may cc breakingthebank@sos-uk.org, or ask us to send the e-mail on your behalf.
For student union officers and university finance committee members
- Download the template paper
- Replace the highlighted sentences with the appropriate information for your university
- Follow the procedures to submit a paper to your university finance committee
If you are not on the committee, not allowed to submit papers, or unsure of how to do so, e-mail the chair, head of the committee, your vice chancellor, and any other relevant members with the paper requesting its discussion
Other ways to take action
Divest USS has a list of ways to get involved on their website. For staff, contact Divest USS at ussdivest@gmail.com, while students can contact breakingthebank@sos-uk.org