Trinity College, Cambridge, England, will divest £14 million ($20 million) in fossil fuel-linked investments from its public equity portfolio by the end of 2021, a spokesman said Monday.
The endowment is excluding from its portfolio companies that derive significant revenues from the extraction, supply or distribution of fossil fuels, as part of efforts to reduce its carbon emissions to zero by 2050, according to a news release.
Trinity College, which is a constituent college at the University of Cambridge, will also divest £700,000 in private equity exposures that represent 5% of its overall fossil-fuel exposure over the next five to 10 years.
The total £15 million in planned divestments represents 1% of Trinity College's £1.5 billion in endowment assets.
The endowment will also study its existing carbon footprint in an effort to put a strategy in place by the end of August that will lead to a carbon-free portfolio.
The endowment's portfolio is made up of a 60% allocation to real estate and a 40% allocation to private and listed equity. Private equity investments represented 2.4% of the securities portfolio as of December, according to the spokesman.
"Climate change is an issue that matters deeply to Trinity and, last year, we undertook an extensive consultation process on climate change that included fellows, students, other colleges and external experts. We now have an ambitious plan to achieve net zero before 2050, which, while challenging, given the nature of the endowment's portfolio, is achievable and consistent with the college's income growth objectives," said Richard Turnill, senior bursar at the college, in the news release.
"We will move rapidly where we can, starting with divestment from all fossil-fuel exposure in our public equities this year," Mr. Turnill added.
