This 10 years has been a revolution in a typical group of clients. They've begun to realize they have to take it into account, that it has portfolio implications. And the last two years has seen an acceleration in that, as the general public has gotten more involved in Europe and North America, particularly last year. Things are beginning to happen much faster.
Why aren’t college and university endowments divesting from fossil fuel stocks?
I've spoken to over 1,000 investment committees, and they are the most conservative organizations on the planet. And that is the reason that almost all of the universities have had problems divesting, although they're now beginning to.
But at the top end, what about MIT, Harvard and so on? They receive hundreds of millions of good research dollars to do perfectly good, valuable research—from the oil industry. One of the leading university's leading people said to us—and I'm sure she'd be happy to deny it—“we simply can't afford to step away.” I'm mildly sympathetic. You can do a lot of terrific research for $200 million. You wouldn't lightly walk away from it, would you? But having said that, you're still bought. You sold out for a high price, but you're still bought.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.