Ivy activism: Harvard to divest from fossil fuels

Harvard University, which has the largest endowment of any university, is divesting from fossil fuels.

Harvard University, which boasts the largest endowment of any university, is divesting from fossil fuels after years of public pressure to green up its portfolio. Harvard’s President Lawrence Bacow made the announcement in a letter published on Thursday, saying that Harvard Management Company (HMC) -which oversees the school’s $42bn endowment –  has no direct investments in firms that “explore for or develop further reserves of fossil fuels” and it “does not intend to make such investments in future”. Any indirect investments in fossil fuels via private equity funds, Bacow said, are in “runoff mode”.