Along with the People’s Climate March late last year, we’ve been seeing rapidly escalating and sweeping environmental actions largely fortified by young people all over the world!

Take Global Divestment Day which took the world by storm a few weeks ago. Totaling 450 rallies held in 60 countries, hundreds of thousands of young people spoke out in solidarity against Big Oil and for increased focus on renewable energy. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement has grown so much over the past few years, borne largely out of increasingly ominous scientific reports on climate change, tragic extreme weather events, and the expansion of oil drilling and exploration despite nonstop news of disastrous accidents.

Over 25 universities and 42 cities worldwide have already committed to divestment. Many others are in the process – or at least have a running divestment campaign working to achieve this 3-part goal:

1. Freeze all current investments in fossil fuel
2. Stop future investments
3. Begin investing in renewable energy

“Divestment is about taking money out of the fossil fuel companies, yes, but it is a method of resistance that is growing in visibility since the very act of divesting is a political one,” Darsen Hover, a freshman at Hunter College and member of CUNY Divest, explained to me. “People often say that money speaks – in this case it really does. Because of this visibility, divesting from an industry is a way of stigmatizing them. Once this stigmatization becomes widespread enough, the fossil fuel industry will lose its power.”

A few CUNY (City University of New York) students have been strong voices in the campaign for responsible investment. These days they are applying pressure during public hearings, educating themselves and others, and creating or taking part in events that will hopefully cause change. CUNY Divest formed as a small group of students and alumni just a couple of years ago. Since then they have gained media attention and earned the support of many influential people.

I interviewed CUNY Divest core member Denise Lescano, a senior studying Marketing Management and Environmental Sustainability at Baruch College.

What have been some of CUNY Divest’s most significant achievements?

One of the earliest was being able to have an initial meeting with Vice Chancellor of Budget & Finance Matthew Sapienza, CUNY Chief Investment Officer Janet Krone, and CUNY University Controller Leonard Zinnanti on August 13, 2013. This was a few months after the campaign began.

However, our best achievement so far happened September 8th, 2014, during the Committee on Fiscal Affairs meeting. Sapienza and CUNY’s investment manager Cambridge Associates, discussed, in front of the CUNY Board of Trustees, CUNY’s fossil fuel investments and what divesting would mean for the university. We saw this as a turning point for the campaign.

How has the response been from both CUNY and Cambridge Associates?

Though Sapienza voiced obvious concerns on divesting, such as restructuring fees and portfolio risks, we weren’t discouraged. We saw how possible divesting really is. Thomas Smitt-Jeppesen of Cambridge Associates said, “A fossil-fuel-free portfolio is possible. We think there would be some costs, and divestment may limit our opportunity set…but these are trade-offs you might well accept.”

We do understand the administration’s hesitance towards divesting, but we feel that the longer CUNY waits to divest, the harder it will be to do so – their returns will be at a higher risk as the world gradually shifts to more renewable energy sources.

The campaign has been running for some time. Why do you continue to do what you do?

People across the globe are already suffering from the impacts of climate change and it will only continue to worsen the longer the majority of humanity remains passive about the issue. We need support and action from all generations, but as the generation who will inevitably face the consequences, the youth see the fossil fuel divestment movement as the way to take back control of our future from the hands of the fossil fuel industry – the major influencers of climate change.

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There are 23 schools within the CUNY system, making it the largest in the nation. At this moment, CUNY has approximately $10 million in fossil fuels securities within a diversified mutual-fund portfolio. Clearly, CUNY Divest campaigners have their work cut out for them! New York University‘s divestment campaign has been making significant progress and The New School has formally announced a plan to divest.

CUNY Divest hopes that these developments will pave the way for their own school to follow suit.