Yale News

The University announced its ambitious climate action plan to reduce Yale’s contribution to climate change, with strategies ranging from more stringent divestment principles to a goal of zero actual emissions by 2050. But activists, largely disappointed in progress, exposed the University’s alleged violations of state law in a legal complaint filed in February. 

President Peter Salovey and Provost Scott Strobel reported in June 2021 that the University had reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 43 percent from 2005 to 2020. They also announced the University’s expectation of zero actual carbon emissions on campus by 2050, with the goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2035. 

In November 2021, the University announced new steps in its climate action strategy to fulfill the Yale Sustainability Plan 2025 released in 2016. This strategy intends to reduce actual carbon emissions by 65 percent from 2015 levels. One major method included preparing campus buildings with electrified heating and rooftops for solar panels, along with “space-use policies that support emissions reductions.” There remains over 400 campus buildings to modify. 

Adrian Huq, co-founder of the New Haven Climate Movement Youth Action Team, told the News that the 2050 goal “is too far in the future.” Huq further noted that the University’s strategy did not mention collaboration with the city.

“It’s strange that Yale continues to be in their bubble when we are sharing a city,” Huq said. “Our emissions don’t know any borders.”

Progress and pitfalls 

Katie Schlick ’22, the former president of the Student Environmental Coalition and Silliman sustainability liaison, was critical of the University’s carbon neutrality timeline. The Paris Agreement dictates that countries aim to transition to clean energy by 2030. 

The University also plans to implement renewable energy technology such as biomass gasification and green hydrogen processes for campus energy needs starting in the mid-2030s. The climate action strategy noticeably did not include a time frame for reaching 100 percent renewable energy use. 

In response, scientists and activists expressed an urgent need for the University to address two of its largest sources of pollution — the Central Power Plant and the Sterling Power Plant. According to Chair of the US Collegiate Energy Consortium Sena Sugiono ’25, Yale produced 198,000 metric tons of greenhouse gasses in 2020. These two plants accounted for 98.5 percent — 195,000 tons — of the University’s greenhouse gas emissions.

“Using language like mid-2030s and ‘emerging technologies’ is pretty telling on how confident Yale and other industry folks are in being able to transition existing fossil fuel infrastructure into clean infrastructure,” Noah Mitchell-Ward ENV ’22 wrote in an email to the News. 

Mitchell-Ward explained that to reach carbon zero emissions, Yale seems to be looking to use technologies that have not yet been developed.

The 2021 Yale Sustainability Progress Report evaluated Yale’s progress toward reaching its sustainability goals, halfway through its nine-year plan. While the University is on track to achieve 89 percent of its 38 goals laid out in the 2025 Sustainability Plan, it is behind on two. 

The plan’s waste diversion goal, which seeks to “divert 60 percent of materials, while maintaining or reducing the overall volume of waste” by 2024, is behind schedule. Further, the University is not on track to meet its green cleaning goal of making over 40 percent of the chemicals used green or green- certified.

In late January, the University announced the creation of a $15 million Climate Impact Innovation Fund, which will operate within the Planetary Solutions Project, to fund early stage projects aimed at combating climate change. 

Addressing divestment 

Years of student advocacy for fossil fuel divestment had led to the University implementing new principles for divestment from fossil fuel producers in April 2021. In order to be eligible for investment from Yale’s endowment, companies must now adhere to the five new ethical investment principles. 

The first principle requires companies to avoid exploration and production of fossil fuels which generate high levels of greenhouse gas relative to energy supplies. They must also minimize greenhouse gas emissions, support government policies on climate change, and provide accurate information on climate science. Finally, companies must be transparent with Yale and its investment office about their compliance with these guidelines. 

The University announced that it would divest from and publicly name the companies that failed to meet these standards. Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR) is in charge of recommending specific companies for Yale to divest from or not to invest in. As of April 2021, the Yale Investments Office estimated that about $800 million of Yale’s endowment was invested in fossil fuel-producing companies. 

At some point between Dec. 20, 2021 and Jan. 31, the energy companies ExxonMobil and Chevron were quietly added to the list of companies ineligible for Yale investment, based on recommendation from the University’s ACIR. The committee accused the two companies of violating the third ethical investment principle by “undermin[ing] sensible government regulation and industry self-regulation addressing climate change.” 

However, Yale is invested in a fracking giant. Two years after selling its $80 million equity stake in the fracking company Antero Resources, the University again acquired $41 million in shares in the company, as reported in Yale’s 13F filing at the end of 2021.

“I’m shocked and dismayed by Yale’s decision to invest tens of millions of dollars in Antero, a fossil fuel corporation with a horrifying track record of violations of environmental law, threatening our planet and our futures,” said Josephine Steuer Ingall ’24, an organizer for the Endowment Justice Coalition. “There is no justification for an academic institution to seek to profit from activities which are rapidly rendering our planet uninhabitable. Yale must, must, must do better.”

Taking legal action

On Feb. 16, student activists in the Endowment Justice Coalition submitted an 83 page complaint to Connecticut Attorney General William Tong that claimed that the University’s continued investment in the fossil fuel industry violates state law. The EJC complaint estimates Yale’s fossil fuel holdings to range from $800 million to $2.5 billion.

The EJC, a group of student activists, focuses on the ethical allocation of University endowment funds. They acted alongside students at Princeton, Stanford, Vanderbilt and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in filing simultaneous complaints to the attorney generals of their schools’ respective states. This action follows the work of divestment activists at Harvard and Cornell whose complaints led to both schools’ complete divestment from the fossil fuel industry within six months of filing.

The EJC complaint alleged that by maintaining fossil fuel holdings, the Yale Corporation — the University’s highest governing body — was violating the provision of the 2009 Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds (UPMIFA) which stipulated that tax-exempt nonprofit entities, including universities, must keep charitable interests in mind when investing. This provision is in effect in every state but Pennsylvania.

The complaint requested that Tong open an investigation into Yale’s fossil fuel investments. Notably, Harvard and Cornell divested before investigations were opened. According to Climate Defense Project co-founder Alex Marquardt, if an investigation by the Office of the Attorney General finds that the University violates the UPMIFA, Tong could direct Yale to sell its holdings in the fossil fuel industry, 

“We’ll be happy with either outcome,” said EJC organizer Avery Long ’24. “If schools divest before investigations can be filed, then that’s wonderful — schools are divesting, that’s amazing. If an investigation happens, and then an attorney general comes out and says fossil fuel investments are illegal, then that’s huge.” 

Among the co-signatories of the complaint were social critic and political activist Noam Chomsky, former SEC commissioner Bevis Longstreth and environmentalist William McKibben. The EJC also encouraged Yale students, alumni and employees to sign on as well. 

“If Yale is about creating, sharing, doing research and sharing truth for the betterment of the world, the fossil fuel industry is absolutely invested in trying to make sure people don’t understand the science and don’t see alternatives as possible, because the alternatives will undermine the profits of these companies,” EJC activist Moses Goren ’23 said.

In the complaint, four Yale trustees were named for having ties to fossil fuel companies. Charles Goodyear IV ’80, Joshua L. Steiner ’87, William Earl Kennard LAW ’81 and Paul Joskow GRD ’70 ’72, were all accused of alleged conflict of interest due to their role in approving the University’s fossil fuel investment principles. 

“I found it so eye opening to look into this and find direct evidence of the ties that people have to these organizations,” Steuer Ingall said. “They’re really personally enriched at the end of the day by both the capital and the social legitimacy that Yale lends to fossil fuel related exploitation. And it feels like such a damning indictment.”

The Yale Endowment Justice Coalition was founded in 2018.