gair rhydd y Monday December 1st 2014 | freeword | Issue 1039
In this week’s issue: Jocelyn Davies AM on the “smacking ban,” NUS Wales President Beth Button on student democracy, building the perfect CV and giving blood while playing video games
Cardiff Uni “in bed with oil and gas” Revealed: Cardiff University invests over £2.5 million in fossil fuels and non-renewable energy
EXCLUSIVE: Alexander Norton
A
freedom of information request has revealed that Cardiff University holds a number of assets in the petrochemical industry valued at over £2.5million. Data provided to Gair Rhydd shows that the institution has strong financial interests in numerous companies including petroleum companies BP, Tullow Oil and Shell and mining corporation Rio Tinto. Also listed are commodity traders Glencore, oil and gas multinational Total, and American energy giant
Chevron Corporation. In total, Cardiff University is shown to have financial links with nine companies in the sector, all of which deal in allegedly environmentally damaging practices and in the trade of non-renewable energy sources. The University’s individual investments range from nearly half a million pounds (£410,800) in Royal Dutch Shell to £194,200 in Glencore. The institution’s total holdings in the industry amount to £2,504,881.
The figures were obtained from the Finance Divsion by student campaign group People and Planet. A campaigner told Gair Rhydd that their request had taken “about six weeks” to receive a response, despite Freedom of Information requests having a legally enshrined deadline of four weeks (or 20 working days). People and Planet alleges that the sum is part of a £1.9 billion investment in the petrochemical industry by British universities. If this figure is accurate, then it equates to an av-
erage of £2,083 per student enrolled across the country’s institutions. Of this, a small proportion is alleged to be invested directly in the shares of the numerous companies that control the world’s oil, coal and gas reserves. The revelations come in the wake of a Student Senate debate focused upon the University’s investment portfolio, with Ethical and Environment Officer Daniel Roberts stating that “investing in companies that put our world at risk can only be a negative”.
Pictured: The BP-owned Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Cardiff Uni is one of BP’s investors.
Continued on page 7
Greater Representation for LGBT+ Women, POSTPONED; Pro-choice union, REJECTED; Recognise Palestine, PASSED; Cardiff-Palestine twinning, PASSED; Ban BAE, REJECTED; Improving postgraduate representation, PASSED; Student Media Restructure, PASSED. AGM, The full report, pages 6-8 >>