Today, student campaign groups at the UK universities of Manchester, Cambridge, Leeds, UCL, Oxford, Bristol and Plymouth are leading a national day of action demanding their institutions divest from fossil fuels. It is supported by student campaign network People & Planet and the National Union of Students (NUS).

Fossil Free campaigns at many universities have faced repeated rejections by senior management, despite calls from staff and students for divestment over the last four years.

Lizzy Haughton, from Manchester People & Planet, says, 'After our 3-year-long campaign has been repeatedly ignored by University management, we felt that we had no choice but to call for a national escalation in campaign tactics to highlight the disregard universities are showing towards their students, staff and the climate. We're saying that enough is enough, divest now!'

In Cambridge, Zero Carbon Society are escalating their divestment campaign with a dramatic protest at the University's symbolic King's College Chapel. About a dozen members, dressed in black, will gather and set off black smoke grenades while holding banners saying 'Cambridge #ComeClean' and 'Enough is Enough'.

Mia Finnamore, member of Zero Carbon Society, says: 'Cambridge University has always been at the cutting edge of scientific research. However, as long as it invests in fossil fuels, it capitalises on the deaths of millions of people suffering from the effects of climate change and contributes to a bleak future of catastrophic climate change. The university has the responsibility to act as a leader nationally and globally. When it divests and reinvests in renewable energies, it will send a strong political message to its planetary audience.'

In the UK, over ? of UK universities (59) have made some kind of fossil fuel divestment commitment. The University of East Anglia recently joined other universities - including the University of Glasgow, the University of Warwick and King's College London - in full divestment.

On this national day of action - the week after the conclusion of the COP23 climate talks in Bonn, Germany - students are demanding full divestment from all fossil fuel companies. At COP23, Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities called for climate justice and community-based solutions that respect their human rights and indigenous sovereignty, instead of market-based false solutions. This national day of action stands in solidarity with these priorities.

'While progress has been made on acknowledging the role of Indigenous Peoples in the fight against climate change globally, Indigenous Peoples' rights are not truly recognised in the final document of the COP 23 agreement', says Suzanne Dhaliwal, director of the UK Tar Sands Network.

'This week we also saw the approval of the Keystone XL pipeline days after 210,000 gallons of tar sands oil spilled from another TransCanada pipeline. Now more than ever, we need an international movement to take a stand with communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel extraction and urge your universities to do the morally right thing and rapidly divest from fossil fuels,' says Jade Begay from the Indigenous Environmental Network.

'One of the most powerful outcomes of Standing Rock was the divestment movement: a movement that is entirely led by citizens, and that has resulted in over $4.3 billion dollars being divested from banks that fund the Dakota Access Pipeline.'

Robbiie Young, Vice-President (Society & Citizenship) at NUS, says, 'In 2016, 14% of university and 5% of Further Education college governors were linked to the fossil fuel industry, with £18.7 million worth of university fossil fuel research taking place. The conflicts of interest here are clear, and we endorse the national day of action, for students to pressure their institutions to take action in solidarity with indigenous and frontline communities - leading the calls for climate justice after COP23 last week.'

Follow the day's events on Twitter - #EnoughIsEnough #Divest #EmissionsImpossible