About our divestment campaigns
To read all the divestment campaign updates, click here.
On September 20, 2019 the student-led Fossil-Free UNB campaign was launched at this event on the UNB campus. The campaign is supported by RAVEN. In 2019, the UNB Students Union, and UGSW – the union of graduate student workers, local 60550 of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) all signed-on to the campaign.
For more information read the October 2021 campaign booklet.
To join the campaign, read and sign the petition here.
This petition is open to everyone in the UNB community: students, staff, faculty, alumni, retired.
The UNB divestment campaign is currently led by Rose He, RAVEN research assistant and first year electrical engineering student.
RAVEN is also supporting the student-led campaign at Saint Thomas University (STU). The STU divestment campaign is led by Kelly Green, fourth year student for a double major of Environment & Society Studies and Communication & Public Policy Studies.
Why is RAVEN involved in a divestment campaign?
As documented in the 2018 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we must immediately end the development of fossil fuel infrastructure and keep existing resources in the ground
Given that RAVEN’s home organization is the University of New Brunswick, an educational institution that strongly values science, we believe that we have a responsibility to act on what scientific evidence has shown us to do time and time again: to mitigate climate change, the most urgent planetary crisis of our time.
Acknowledging that the climate crisis intersects with all justice issues, RAVEN aims to take on a climate justice narrative that discusses power, capitalism, labour, race, colonialism, socio-economic inequality, discrimination and privilege
As ethical researchers, we want to practice what we preach and ensure, to the best of our abilities, that the organization we work within and represent – the University of New Brunswick – follows responsible environmental and social justice practices. University divestment campaigns are happening globally, and UNB has had a history of such initiatives.
Building on this foundation, RAVEN is dedicated towards supporting a student-led campaign that encourages the University of New Brunswick to stop investing in the fossil fuel industry.
For more information about the divestment campaign at UNB, click here.
Want to learn more?
Many of the issues, opportunities and challenges of universities divesting from fossil fuel investments are discussed in this recent article by Jennie Stephens, Dean’s Professor of Sustainability Science & Policy and Director, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs, Northeastern University.
The independent UK publication, The Guardian, has a special section for news and analysis about fossil fuel divestment, linked here.
The National Observer collaborated with The Toronto Star, Global News, the Michener Awards Foundation, the Corporate Mapping Project and four journalism schools on “The Price of Oil” investigating the impacts of the oil and gas industry on Canadian communities. You can access the articles here.
We encourage everyone – especially those that are part of the University of New Brunswick’s community – to learn about the IPCC recommendations and fossil fuel divestment.
Contact us
Anyone who is part of the UNB community and would like to speak publicly about divestment is welcome to join a discussion and action group that keeps our campaign moving forward. Please contact us: raven.unb@gmail.com.