Stanford Students Pledge Civil Disobedience Unless University Divests From Oil and Gas
With two months left until the COP21 climate negotiations kick off in Paris, 50 Stanford students launch a pledge to engage in civil disobedience unless their University divests from oil and gas.
October 6, 2025
Press Contact:
Contact: Michael Peñuelas, FFS Press Lead // +1-206-218-4345 // [email protected]
UPDATE: In the first 4 hours after the pledge went public the number of students who had pledged grew from 50 to 78. 114 students have now pledged.
Press Contact:
Contact: Michael Peñuelas, FFS Press Lead // +1-206-218-4345 // [email protected]
UPDATE: In the first 4 hours after the pledge went public the number of students who had pledged grew from 50 to 78. 114 students have now pledged.
Photo credit: Nick T. Salazar
STANFORD, CA - In response to Stanford’s continued investment in oil and gas in the lead-up to the international climate negotiations, 50 (see update above) students have pledged to participate in civil disobedience. The 21st Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), widely considered the "last chance to adopt a global agreement that makes it possible to secure a safe climate,” is scheduled for November 30 to December 11 and will take place in Paris, France(1)(2)(3). Unless Stanford’s Board of Trustees divests from fossil fuels before then, the 50 students who have pledged thus far, in addition to the hundreds who are expected to join the pledge in coming weeks, will take non-violent direct action in order to demonstrate the urgency with which Stanford must divest if it is to make a maximal impact.
Ahead of the negotiations, the UN has called for every player - individual and institutional - to do everything it can before December to set the stage for a successful agreement in Paris(4).
“For Stanford University, answering the UNFCCC’s call means divesting from oil and gas. And for Fossil Free Stanford campaigners, that means doing everything we can to magnify our voices in this decisive moment,” said Stanford Junior Kate Roberts. Roberts is a student organizer with Fossil Free Stanford.
Fossil Free Stanford has been working closely with the Stanford administration for 3 years, and secured divestment from the largest publicly held coal extraction companies in May of 2014. The campaign has met regularly since the end of 2012 with the Office of the President and the University’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing (APIR-L), which is charged with upholding Stanford’s policy on investment responsibility.
On Friday October 2, 2015, in conjunction with a rally drawing more than 2000 attendees to Stanford’s White Plaza to call for climate action, the President and Vice President of the student body (ASSU) delivered a letter calling for oil and gas divestment to the Stanford Board of Trustees. And on Monday October 5, 2015, a second letter, this one written by Fossil Free Stanford, was read aloud to the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility (SCIR) of the Stanford Board of Trustees (text included below).
The United States has stood as a major barrier to effective international climate agreements throughout the 20-year negotiating history of the UNFCCC Conferences of Parties. “Because of the urgency of producing an international agreement in Paris, it is the responsibility of leading U.S. institutions to equip the U.S. negotiators with clear evidence that the country’s civil society is ready to close the door on the future of fossil fuels,” said Stanford Junior Josh Lappen. Lappen is the Faculty Liaison with Fossil Free Stanford.
The Pledge, signed by 50 students as of 10/07/15, reads:
Unless Stanford divests from the fossil fuel industry, I will participate in civil disobedience to protest my University financially supporting, and therefore condoning, a business model that endangers public health, exacerbates climatic and political instability, and disproportionately harms people of color and low-income communities around the world.
“We are hopeful that we will not have to follow through on our commitment to civil disobedience and instead our University will make good on its stated commitment to creating a better, safer world by divesting before COP21. But per the UN’s call, we’re ready to do everything we can,” said Stanford Junior John Ribeiro-Broomhead. Ribiero-Broomhead is the Alumni Liaison with Fossil Free Stanford.
Ahead of the negotiations, the UN has called for every player - individual and institutional - to do everything it can before December to set the stage for a successful agreement in Paris(4).
“For Stanford University, answering the UNFCCC’s call means divesting from oil and gas. And for Fossil Free Stanford campaigners, that means doing everything we can to magnify our voices in this decisive moment,” said Stanford Junior Kate Roberts. Roberts is a student organizer with Fossil Free Stanford.
Fossil Free Stanford has been working closely with the Stanford administration for 3 years, and secured divestment from the largest publicly held coal extraction companies in May of 2014. The campaign has met regularly since the end of 2012 with the Office of the President and the University’s Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Licensing (APIR-L), which is charged with upholding Stanford’s policy on investment responsibility.
On Friday October 2, 2015, in conjunction with a rally drawing more than 2000 attendees to Stanford’s White Plaza to call for climate action, the President and Vice President of the student body (ASSU) delivered a letter calling for oil and gas divestment to the Stanford Board of Trustees. And on Monday October 5, 2015, a second letter, this one written by Fossil Free Stanford, was read aloud to the Special Committee on Investment Responsibility (SCIR) of the Stanford Board of Trustees (text included below).
The United States has stood as a major barrier to effective international climate agreements throughout the 20-year negotiating history of the UNFCCC Conferences of Parties. “Because of the urgency of producing an international agreement in Paris, it is the responsibility of leading U.S. institutions to equip the U.S. negotiators with clear evidence that the country’s civil society is ready to close the door on the future of fossil fuels,” said Stanford Junior Josh Lappen. Lappen is the Faculty Liaison with Fossil Free Stanford.
The Pledge, signed by 50 students as of 10/07/15, reads:
Unless Stanford divests from the fossil fuel industry, I will participate in civil disobedience to protest my University financially supporting, and therefore condoning, a business model that endangers public health, exacerbates climatic and political instability, and disproportionately harms people of color and low-income communities around the world.
“We are hopeful that we will not have to follow through on our commitment to civil disobedience and instead our University will make good on its stated commitment to creating a better, safer world by divesting before COP21. But per the UN’s call, we’re ready to do everything we can,” said Stanford Junior John Ribeiro-Broomhead. Ribiero-Broomhead is the Alumni Liaison with Fossil Free Stanford.
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THE FOLLOWING LETTER WAS READ ALOUD TO THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON INVESTMENT RESPONSIBILITY (SCIR) OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY ON 10/05/15.
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Dear SCIR members,
Thank you for your work on fossil fuel divestment thus far and for your continued consideration of further divestment from the industry that threatens the climatic and political stability of our planet. Today, Stanford has a vested interest in fossil fuel companies, companies which have understood the consequences of their product for forty years and have buried the truth beneath irresponsible lies. Within the lifetimes of current Stanford students, the 9/10ths of a degree of warming that we have already caused will produce mass migration, civil war, famines across the developing world, and severe economic strain worldwide. Today we call upon you to vote on the principle of divestment from the oil and gas companies with the most fossil fuels in their proven reserves, in advance of a specific list from the APIR-L. We call upon you to vote now, before international climate negotiations begin in Paris. Instead of betting on the success of an industry causing political and climatic instability, Stanford can unequivocally declare that it is time to close the door on the future of fossil fuels. Desire for action on divestment from oil and gas unites this community across identities and affiliations. 75% of the undergraduate population demands divestment from oil and gas. The ASSU and the Graduate Student Council demand divestment from oil and gas. 376 faculty representing all 7 schools of this University, a past President of the University, and a broad coalition of our most noteworthy, including Nobel, Fields, and MacArthur prize winners, demand divestment from oil and gas companies. We understand that Stanford has not been silent on climate change. You have invested more than half a billion dollars in a new energy generation strategy. You have enabled groundbreaking climate-related research and scholarship by raising and committing hundreds of millions to programs and institutes across our University’s schools. Stanford faculty have been key contributing authors to every IPCC report. Yet through it all, our University is explicitly condoning the actions of industries driving climate change through its continued investments in fossil fuels. In frustration at this hypocrisy, 376 faculty members supported by those programs and institutes authored a public letter denouncing Stanford’s inaction and intellectual inconsistency. Stanford can and should continue to improve energy efficiency and our energy portfolio to serve as a valuable model. In these next two months, however, Stanford has the unprecedented ability to help ensure international progress on climate. From November 30 to December 11 the Conference of Parties, the annual climate negotiations which produced the Kyoto Protocol and the Copenhagen Accords, will be held in Paris. It has been termed by the UN the "last chance to adopt a global agreement that makes it possible to secure a safe climate." But with the U.S. remaining the major barrier, U.S. negotiators need to hear leading civil institutions make unequivocal declarations that the time of fossil fuels is ending. The fact that Stanford’s voice is only one of many on an international stage does not excuse us. We are still obligated, like all institutions and individuals, to do everything we can before the December negotiations begin. And even though Stanford is just one institution, its actions regularly do change the world. Following Stanford’s coal divestment announcement, a wave of divestments cited Stanford’s logic and action, and we pulled the first corporate actors into the movement. On the floor of the California Senate last month, President Pro Tempore Kevin De Leon cited Stanford’s divestment as he argued for his bill, now law, encouraging divestment of CalPERS, the fifth largest mutual fund on the planet. Around the world, working with whatever information and circumstances they have at hand, countries, companies, institutions, and individuals are stepping out of the realm of comfort, and they are taking the extraordinary measures demanded by this extraordinary situation. If we miss this chance to act when the world was most ready, we will have failed to do everything we could. As the SCIR, doing everything you can includes recommending to the rest of the Board that they vote on divesting from the oil and gas companies with the most fossil fuels in their proven reserves. Though the APIR-L has not finished its company-by-company analysis, the economic research is clear on the industry's overwhelmingly net negative impact on society. At the very least, the SCIR can vote now, while our voice matters most, to divest from the worst oil and gas companies, and finalize the criteria for divestment at a later date. In turn, we promise to do all that we can to maximize our voice in this decisive moment, in the fight for food security, water security, climate stability, and a resilient world. Between now and COP21, Stanford’s Board of Trustees must hear those calling for divestment: they must hear the scientists, must hear the economists, must hear us. And when you divest, the negotiators will hear you. The status quo is international disaster. You must act. Sincerely, The Fossil Free Stanford Team |
