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Union divests from fossil fuels The independent voice of Newcastle students
Isabel Sykes Deputy Editor
At the last Student Council of the year on Thursday 16 May, President of the Students’ Union Raff Marioni announced that NUSU had fully divested from fossil fuels.
Newcastle University and NUSU made commitments to divest in May 2016
Raff had been working I collaboration with NUSU’s Director of Finance to compile an 8-page report on NUSU’s investments. This was submitted to the Union’s Trustee Board, completing their divestment from fossil fuels. In his End of Year Report Raff describes this as his greatest achievement as President this year. Newcastle University and the Students’ Union both made commitments to divesting from fossil fuels in May 2016 following a student campaign and calls from NUSU Student Council. The University aimed to partially divest, whereas the Union’s aim was a full investment within the 3 years. The last update from Newcastle University on their ongoing divestment commitment was in November 2018 when a press release highlighted the progress they had made so far. This included the fact that the University’s investment in the oil and gas sector reduced from 8.8% in September 2017 to 4.4% in October 2018. While the University are still in the process of divesting from fossil fuels, the Union have
recently achieved their 3-year aim. When asked what the initiative to divest from fossil fuels means for NUSU, Raff Marioni said: ‘Essentially, we as an organisation have a certain amount of money held in investments, with a proportion of this historically being in companies that are unfortunately involved in fossil fuels. What we’re doing is moving our investments into companies that are having a positive impact on the environment and not contributing to the further destruction of the planet.’ The Union’s Annual Report, which can be accessed through the NUSU website, shows that as of July 2018 NUSU had £108,000 in investments. A proportion of these investments were with companies involved in fossil fuel industries. With the Union now committed to full divestment, they will be moving this money into investments that are not associated with fossil fuels. The Courier asked Raff what had been involved in the process of compiling the Report that completed NUSU’s divestment goal, and what obstacles he had encountered. He responded: ‘Paula Park, our Director of Finance, did a fantastic job of consulting with and searching for ethical investments. We worked closely together on creating an extensive report to our Board outlining what the impact of new investments would be. ‘Divesting from fossil fuels has been a goal of mine for a while, but it was not easy. You have to balance the ethical aspect with ensuring NUSU doesn’t lose money, which means a lot of careful research and calculations have to be completed – not something that comes naturally to me as a History grad!’ In terms of what further steps could be taken to reduce NUSU’s impact on the environment, the President said: ‘I think continuing to remove plastic use, limiting the amount
of paper used for elections, and encouraging students to be involved in environmentallyfriendly volunteering projects should all be on the agenda. ‘Yet, the most important next step for us is to continue to lobby the University to contribute positively to the environment. Campus can always be more environmentally friendly, and crucially they still have funds in fossil fuels and this needs to change. This is a big challenge for NUSU and students to come together on and pressure the University to change their ways.’ In the most recent press release from the University on the progress of their divestment commitment, Richard Dale, Executive Director of Finance for Newcastle University, said: ‘We stand by our commitment to furthering environmental sustainability and our pledge
‘The most important next step is to continue to lobby the university to contribute positively to the enviroment’
Raff Marioni, President of Newcastle University Students’ Union
to embed ESG considerations into our investment strategy. ‘The University cannot change its investment portfolio overnight and the investment sector itself is only now expanding its ESG alternatives. However, the University has made substantial progress during 2017/18 in improving the ESG qualities of its portfolio and will continue to do so’.
Students witness Farage hit with milkshake first-hand Sophie Wilson
Nigel Farage hit the headlines last week when he was hit by a Five Guys banana and salted caramel milkshake during his one hour visit to Newcastle campaigning for the Brexit party in the EU elections on the 21st of May. Farage, giving a talk near Newcastle Monument, had just finished his speech when he was hit with the shake when walking away with his security staff. Paul Crowther, who has been since charged with common assault and criminal damage, was identified as the individual responsible. This is not an isolated incident with a number of far right candidates in the European elections campaign having also being doused in milkshake. While walking away Farage blamed the incident on his security team, muttering that it
was an “utter failure” and that “you could see that coming from a mile away.” Two Newcastle University studentes were at the scene. Stephen Dawes explained how the incident happened: “As they crossed the road, a gap opened up and this guy just lunges on in and quickly splashed him.”’ Christopher Winter, Another Newcastle student who witnessed the incident commented: “There was a chorus of panic and some shouting afterwards. Some counter protestors there started laughing but the mood amongst the crowd was mainly that of confusion. The man who threw the drink was very quickly dragged away by a PCSO and a policeman. “I think it’s disgraceful that we have come to a point in British politics where Candidates cannot walk around the street without feeling fearful that they could be attacked in this manner. We pride ourselves on being a
fair democracy and using political violence like this will only vilify the remain argument more-so.” Crowther was then arrested by a community support officer. The response to this was noted by Dawes, who said that there was a ‘“cheer and a boo when it happened.” Crowther has since said that he does not regret his actions, taking to twitter to rejoice by writing: “I f***ing did it, it was Farage, I can’t believe I did it.” He has also said that his actions are nothing compared to the “bile and racism” that Nigel Farage “spouts out”. Farage has said that remainers have been “radicalised to the extent that normal campaigning has become impossible.” He has also blamed politicians and their refusal to accept the referendum result. Results from the European Election will be released on May 26 after the last polling station in the continent is closed.
NUSU have achieved their 3-year divestment aim Image: NUSU
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