A victory sip from King’s Climate activists

Victory tastes nice, brought to you by Pret

Roger Hallam, main activist for King’s Climate Emergency group, ended his 14-day hunger strike with an agreement between the group and the College that will see greater commitment on tackling the issue of climate change.

KCCE activists occupied the Old Committee Room on Strand on Tuesday at 6pm, and held a meeting a day after the occupation with VP Chris Mottershead, the KCLSU President and a representative from KCL’s press office.

VP Chris Mottershead with KCCE activists and student union president

They have agreed on 4 main points:

The net emissions of the College from fossil fuels will be zero by 2025.

King’s will fund new research on creating the cultural and social changes in society needed to enact a significant global change on climate issues.

The university will have divested from all fossil fuels by the end of the academic year 2022.

King’s will increase its’ commitment to investments with socially responsible benefits from the present aim of 15% to at least 40% by 2025.

Finally, regular progress towards delivering these targets will be made and monitored by the College’s student union, including a formal annual report on progress.

However the university has stressed that it will only implement these promised actions if they “do not have a significant impact on the College’s financial risks and returns”.

Also, Roger Hallam promised to apologise on KCCE’s statement about the unintended damage caused to the Strand building from spray-painting.

Chris Mottershead underlined that this action wasn’t the reason why an agreement was achieved, but that it rather slowed the process of coming to this agreement.

The College Council will likely approve this agreement in a final way on Thursday.