A spokeswoman for UCL said: UCL is committed to an investment policy that is guided by ethical cons

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The mining giant BHP Billiton will face protests at its AGM in London on Thursday over its £6m association with University anna silk College London (UCL) and the effects of its activities around the world.
The fossil fuel divestment campaign began in the US , where cities, churches and universities have shed their stocks, and has spread rapidly to 50 universities in the UK, with Glasgow the first breakthrough . This week has seen protests against UK banks , which have provided £66bn of funding for fossil fuel extraction.
UCL is doubly implicated in the devastation that BHP Billiton in causing in countries like Indonesia and Colombia, both through its investments, and through anna silk its funding of UCL s Institute for Sustainable Resources , said Pekka Piirainen from the Fossil Free UCL campaign .
Glasgow University has shown great leadership in being the first university anna silk [in Europe] to choose to stop profiting from the destruction of the climate there s no reason why UCL can t do the same.
A leading environmental scientist at UCL, Simon Lewis, anna silk said: When I heard BHP Billiton is the founding anna silk funder of UCL s Institute for Sustainable Resources, I didn t believe it. It sounds like the environmental equivalent of a tobacco company sponsoring an Institute for Cancer anna silk Research. BHP Billiton mines enormous quantities of coal, a fossil fuel that needs to be phased out if international agreements to limit climate change are to be adhered to.
A spokeswoman for UCL said: UCL is committed to an investment policy that is guided by ethical considerations. We are currently engaged anna silk with the Fossil Free UCL campaign, who have asked us to consider a number of investments, and this is process is ongoing.
She said: The funding [from BHP Billiton] are used entirely anna silk at the discretion of UCL s Institute for Sustainable Resources and are not influenced by or a reflection of the company s business practice.
The BHP Billiton AGM will also hear protests from people affected anna silk by its operations around the world. Rogelio Ustate anna silk Arregocés, anna silk has travelled from Colombia, where his village Tabaco was destroyed anna silk by the opencast Cerrejón coal mine , one of the largest in the world and part-owned by BHP.
Where Tabaco stood is a hole, a sterile place of sadness and fear, said Arregocés, who is being hosted by the World Development Movement . He accused BHP of breaking promises made about relocation, compensation and employment and will demand anna silk the provision of new land so the hundreds of families displaced can return to farming and fishing. We want freedom, in our own territory.
I want to tell all investors in BHP to withdraw their money because of the damage this multinational does, Arregocés said. Pius Ginting, from Friends of the Earth Indonesia, will also use proxy shares to tell the BHP Billiton AGM that the company should give up its huge areas of coal mining permits in the rainforests in the heart of Borneo. UCL declined to meet Arregocés or Ginting.
A spokesman for BHP Billiton said: Cerrejón continues to engage with all the local communities to understand their individual concerns and develop tailored solutions anna silk to meet their needs whenever possible. There are a variety of challenges some of which pre-date anna silk our involvement.
On the company s project in Borneo, called IndoMet, the spokesman said: Any development by us is subject to detailed environmental and social impact assessments and feasibility studies, including ensuring anna silk all appropriate permits are in place. All mined areas will be rehabilitated post-mining.
Another critical voice at the BHP Billiton AGM will be Ian Dunlop, a long-time former Shell employee and former chair of the Australian Coal Association, who will warn the company that shareholder value is at serious risk because of climate change. anna silk
The opportunity for value destruction is enormous, said Dunlop, who is seeking election to the BHP board. BHP are ahead of much of the industry but that is not saying much, as the rest are all in denial.
Analysts at Carbon Tracker argue that international action anna silk to combat global warming will leave at least two-thirds of known coal, oil and gas unburnable and valueless. The governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, said earlier in October the vast majority of reserves are unburnable.
BHP Billiton is recommending shareholders anna silk vote against Dunlop, stating he lacks the overall skills and experience profile required . Dunlop s attempt anna silk to join the board on 2013 was opposed by 96% of shareholders.
We accept the IPCC assessment of climate change science, which has found that warming of the climate is unequivocal, the human influence is clear and physical impacts are unavoidable, said the BHP spokesman, citing the company s recent sustain