Vice President Robbiie Young shares his top 3 updates on the Divest-Invest: Emissions Impossible campaign, in the first edition of this new monthly blog.

This is the first of what will become my monthly blog on the Emissions Impossible campaign - which is all about getting your University or Further Education College to cut their ties with the fossil fuel industry and participate in the just transition to a low-carbon world. Each blog will consist of three headline updates - and if it's been a particularly action-packed month maybe I'll sneak in a few more!

Thanks to the amazing and inspiring actions taking place in our students' unions and across campuses, the past month has provided some mega updates!

1. We made the front page of the Financial Times with our submission to the University of Cambridge's Divestment Working Group. This was co-authored with People & Planet and the Cambridge University Zero Carbon Society. It highlighted the moral, reputational and financial risks associated with continued fossil fuel company investments and was signed by over 60 Cambridge academics, as well Noam Chomsky! You can read the text of the submission here.
2. On the 11th September, 2017, we held our Annual Strategy Day. This was co-facilitated with People & Planet and the University of Bristol's Fossil Free Society. It provided a great opportunity to get an idea of what support you might need over the year ahead, what the movement's reinvestment priorities are and to generally get a sense of where everyone was up to with their campaigns. Throughout the day it was great to hear the strong emphasis on officers supporting grassroots student groups to take action on divestment and reinvestment, as the grassroots are fundamental to effective campaigning - as we heard from both the University of Bristol Fossil Free Society and Fossil Free Sheffield. We hope these relationships continue to thrive and get the chance to be strengthened when we all take action together on the National Day of Action organised for the 22nd November, 2017. A HUGE thanks to the Students' Union at UWE for organising the space for us and for being such lovely hosts!
3. We recently linked up with Culture Unstained, who have just launched an escalation in their campaign to end BP sponsorship of the Royal Shakespeare Company. The organisation have launched a petition on the Fossil Free website, supported by new campaign partners Warwick Students' Union, People & Planet and NUS. It's very significant that we have got involved, because the RSC's sponsorship deal with BP brands their cheap ticket scheme for 16-25-year-olds as 'BP £5 Tickets'. BP are targeting students, but students are fighting back! Culture Unstained's fossil free tickets can be found here and more information on their campaign in their guest blog here.

Dates for your diaries:

• 7th and 8th November - our annual Student Eats Conference and Student Sustainability Summit - at the latter there will be a workshop on divestment and reinvestment co-facilitated with People & Planet;
• 22nd November - The National Day of Action called by campaigners at the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Leeds, Manchester and UCL. Details on the call out can be found here and a template motion to get your Union supporting and endorsing it can be found here.

ENJOY THE REST OF OCTOBER CAMPAIGNING FOLKS!