CLIMATE change campaigners staged a protest at an Oxford University talk about sustainability over investment in fossil fuel by the institution.

Five members of the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign staged the silent protest at the University's Sustainability Showcase.

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As Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson opened the event at the Sheldonian theatre, the students rose from their seats to display a sign that read 'Still investing in fossil fuels?'.

The Sustainability Showcase is an annual awards ceremony run by the University’s Estates Service Environmental Sustainability Team which acknowledges groups across the University working to increase sustainability.

Oxford Mail:

The awards include the college winner of the Student Switch Off Campaign, an awareness-raising campaign for energy conservation in residence halls, and the Green Impact prizes for colleges and faculties who have made their buildings more sustainable.

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Ms Richardson acknowledged the protest at the beginning of her opening remarks, saying: “We have representatives from a large number of entities across the University...including some people protesting our investments in fossil fuels.”

The protesters remained silent and standing with their signs for the duration of the one-and-a-half-hour event.

The group are members of the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign, an official campaign of the Oxford University Student Union which has lobbied since 2012 for the university and its colleges to rid their endowments of investments in the fossil fuel industry.

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The University’s endowment is managed by the Oxford University Endowment Management in a fund that stood at £3.4 billion as of December 2018, with about £74.8 million invested in the energy sector.

The campaigners said they wanted to ensure the Sustainability Showcase did not allow the University to 'gloss over' the issue of its fossil fuel investments.

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Pascale Gourdeau, spokeswoman for group, said: “Students, staff and faculty at the Oxford University have done tremendous work to lessen the carbon footprint of its own premises, and these are efforts that should absolutely be maintained and rewarded.

"However, sustainability has a broader sense: it also concerns the systemic, normalised, and institutionalised forces which are rapidly contributing to the deterioration of life, with the most vulnerable among us affected the most."