University of Hawaii System votes to divest from fossil fuels

The University of Hawaii System has announced it will divest its $66m (£42m) endowment from oil, coal and gas companies, following a vote by its board of regents on Thursday.

It becomes the 30th higher education institution in the world to join the fast-growing global fossil fuel divestment movement. The campaign, which started in September 2013, brought together more than 1,300 supporters including students, faculty and board members.

“This was the perfect model of climate activism,” said Dr Joe Mobley, marine biology professor and a faculty representative representative on the task group for divestment and sustainability. “Regents, faculty and students alike came together, shared their concerns over the scope and speed of climate change, particularly as it affects the Hawaiian Islands, then did something about it.”

In case you missed it

It’s been quite a week for the Keep it in the Ground team – we launched two new series of investigations showcasing what fossil fuel companies are doing around the world

Everyday this week we’ve been profiling the companies that the Wellcome Trust and Gates Foundation are invested. We launched the series in Monday’s paper, exposing how Shell is preparing for a world well beyond thresholds for dangerous climate change.

On Tuesday we told you the story of Schlumberger, the biggest oil company you’ve never heard of. Wednesday was all about Peabody: the world’s largest private coal company, which is rebranding coal as a poverty cure.

On Thursday we revealed the extent of BP’s ties with the British government. Finally, today we can expose that BP is facing UK court action for alleged complicity in kidnap and torture in Colombia.

Our second series investigates the world’s biggest carbon bombs: planned oil, coal and gas projects which – if allowed to complete – will push us significantly towards catastrophic climate change. The first stop is Australia’s outback, home to the 27bn tonnes of coal locked in the Galilee basin.

Thursday saw the launch of the Climate Publishers Network, an unprecedented coalition of news organisations joining together to raise awareness about climate change through an exchange of content. More than two dozen publishers, including El País, the Guardian, Le Monde and China Daily have agreed to waive licencing fees for climate change content. The Guardian’s director of digital strategy Wolfgang Blau said of the network: “It is unprecedented that such a diverse and large group of news organisations from all continents decides to collaborate in this way.”

Even the head of the UN’s organisation for climate change negotiations was celebrating.

Get involved

Next week we’re running a Keep it in the Ground event with Guardian Sustainable Business. It will be chaired by the Guardian’s editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger with a panel including economist Nick Stern, founder of Ecotricity Dale Vince and David Blood, business partner of Al Gore and co-founder of Generation Investment Management.

If you missed out on a ticket, you can still send in a question – just submit it on the form here. We’ll also be filming the event, with footage and highlights online.

Thank you to everybody who has been in touch so far with ideas and requests. Many of you have been asking for stories of hope and alternatives, such as one reader Halfdan Muurholm, who suggested we look to the carbon neutral community living on the Danish island of Samsø in Denmark for inspiration. So we have published a story about clean energy beacons around the world – from Kansas to Copenhagen.

Something we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below or by emailing the team at keep.it@theguardian.com