The University of California is dumping fossil fuel investments from its nearly $84 billion pension and endowment funds, calling them a financial risk.
An opinion article in Tuesday’s Los Angeles Times says the university will make its endowment fund “fossil free” by month’s end and its pension fund, which covers 320,000 people, will soon follow.
Read: Divesting from fossil fuels doesn’t mean sacrificing returns: report
The article was written by the university’s treasurer and the chair of its Board of Regents Investment Committee.
A global campaign for universities and other organizations to disinvest has been waged by climate activists for nearly a decade but the article says the decision was made for financial rather than political reasons.
The article says the university is placing bets “that clean energy will fuel the world’s future.”