MAINE PUBLIC • January 23, 2023
About 10 years ago, Unity College announced a plan to divest its endowment from fossil fuels — making it the first school in the country to do so. For many young climate activists, Unity's decision served as something of a proof-of-concept for what they could accomplish at their own schools. In the decade since, the movement has snowballed, with hundreds more institutions following in Unity's steps. But it's still unclear just how much of an impact the movement has had on the fossil fuel industry. Tyler Hansen, a researcher at the Technical University of Denmark, found that only a tiny fraction of institutions' portfolios had actually been fully divested from fossil fuels. And he found no evidence that it affected stock prices.