King's College London

We are delighted to announce that as of the start of 2021, King’s has fully divested from all fossil fuels. This vital step in our efforts towards combatting the climate crisis comes nearly two years ahead of our target to be fully divested by the end of 2022.

Since making a commitment to our full divestment target in 2017, we have steadily reduced our exposure to fossil fuels from 7.3 per cent in 2017 to zero in 2021.

Our journey towards divestment has been guided by calls from our students and staff for King’s to take action. We formed the Socially Responsible Investment Review Committee following the Fossil Free KCL campaign in 2016 and made a commitment to partial divestment and full divestment the following year.

As an institution that is committed to acting in service to society, we recognise that maximising our positive impacts is as important as reducing our negative impacts. Reinvesting our endowment in funds with socially responsible benefits is therefore an important part of our Ethical Investment Policy.

We are committed to dedicating 40 per cent of our funds to investments with socially responsible benefits by 2025 and have made significant progress towards achieving this target in the last four years. For example, we have invested £31.5 million (12.8 per cent of our total investments) into Northern Trust’s World Green Transition Index Fund, which not only screens out fossil fuel producers and the worst 10 per cent of companies by carbon emissions intensity, but also has a positive ‘tilt’ towards companies that generate ‘green’ revenue, such as energy efficiency and alternative energy. We have also invested £11.4 million (4.6 per cent of our investments) into RobecoSAM’s Sustainable Water Strategy, which invests in companies with innovative technologies and products across the water value chain that will help deal with the issue of water scarcity.

The King’s Climate Action Network (CAN), established in October 2020, is also looking at how we can align our investments with our target to be net zero carbon by 2025, as part of its Responsible Investment sub-group. The King’s CAN builds on our existing work to reduce our carbon emissions. We have so far reduced our scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 54 per cent since 2005-06, exceeding our 43 per cent reduction by 2020 target.

King’s commitment to responsible investment is a core part of our wider commitment to Service and tackling the climate emergency.

Further information

• The King’s Climate Action Network (CAN) is currently working on the development of the King’s Climate Action Strategy, a collaborative plan to reach our target to be net zero carbon by 2025. The network and its seven sub-groups are open to all students and staff at King’s.
• Find out more about King’s efforts towards protecting the environment in our Environmental Sustainability Reports.
• Read more about how King’s makes a positive difference in our local, national and international communities in the Service Annual Report 2019-20.