When the University of Toronto’s School of the Environment announced in October that it will no longer accept donations from the fossil fuel industry, the news sent waves through the growing movement to get coal, oil and gas companies off campuses. Among other things, that means banning fossil fuel corporations from financing academic research.

“This victory shows students have the ability to enact institutional change,” said Erin Mackey, a leader of the group Climate Justice UofT, which pushed for the fossil fuel money ban. “That’s especially important when, at many universities, students who want to make change are having the door slammed in their faces.”

Climate Justice UofT grew out of the fossil fuel divestment movement that over the last decade has swept across universities around the world. In 2021, after years of student pressure, University of Toronto agreed to divest its $4 billion endowment by 2030. Soon after that, Climate Justice UofT joined the nascent fossil free research movement that was already taking root in the United States and United Kingdom, helping bring it to Canada.

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