Student from various Singaporean universities, as part of the group Students for a Fossil Free Future, published a 68-page report highlighting the universities’ linkages with the fossil fuel industry and calling on these 7 universities to take steps to divest from fossil fuels, discontinue research funding, and other recruitment and branding events associated with the sector.

So what?

Student movements across the world have been calling on universities to divest their endowment from fossil fuels industries, highlighting that universities should not have investments or other interests in companies whose operations are harmful to the future of the planet. This report by Fossil Free Future alludes to this argument, drawing similarities between the fossil fuel and the cigarette industry by pointing to the Singaporean government’s ban on cigarette companies from sponsoring and publishing corporate social responsibility activities and their positive rebranding.

The released report is a clear indication that students are deeply concerned about the climate crisis and that they are willing to be vocal and take pro-active steps to hold their institutions accountable for their role in the climate crisis. Their recommendations, if heeded, would reduce the presence of fossil fuel industries in the campus space, while also undermining the efforts of these industries to positively rebrand themselves.