Tribune Explains: CAMSR

What is CAMSR? The Committee to Advise on Matters of Social Responsibility (CAMSR) is an ad hoc committee whose mandate is to advise the Board of Governors (BoG) on socially responsible investing. Final decisions on the University’s academic, business, and financial affairs rest with the BoG. For an investment to[Read More…]

McGill professors debate the effectiveness of fossil fuel divestment

“The research shows that [divestment] does make a difference,” Mikkelson said. “The most comprehensive study [of divestment movements] was done at Oxford, and they looked at other divestment campaigns that didn’t necessarily cripple the industries they were targeting, but what they did do is make a big public impact, and that spurred governments to take action [….] Divestment creates impact by raising awareness, stigmatizing target companies, and influencing legislation.”

Etzion further emphasized the status of divestment as a social rather than economic movement.

“I don’t really perceive [fossil fuel divestment] as a financial tactic,” Etzion said. “It’s about something much bigger than what you invest in, it’s actually a social movement. And the objective of this tactic is to de-legitimize an entire industry. [Universities] are very influential in how the world perceives issues, and [divestment] empowers people to envision a world that is not running on a path to destruction.”

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