Exxon Mobil Corp. and Suncor Energy Inc. are two fossil fuel companies that the school distances itself from major greenhouse-gas emitters, which is why it is moving to Bloomberg University to sever financial ties with them.
Princeton said Thursday in a statement that the university's endowment, the fourth-largest in the US, will also eliminate all holdings in publicly traded fossil fuel companies.
Endowment chief Andy Golden said in a separate statement addressing the fund's divestment decision that the university s long-term goals is a meaningful step toward the university's long-term goals, while the economy in which we invest will always be entangled with fossil fuels for decades to come.
The school's board of trustees voted to dissociate from 90 companies that are active in the fossil fuel industry's thermal coal or tar sands segments earlier this month. The university has existing or recent relationships with 10 of those firms, including Exxon, which has a five-year research partnership with Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy the Environment.
Before it takes any final action, Princeton said it is writing to the affected companies and inviting them to provide information that might resolve its concerns and remove them from its list.
The university will end any partnerships that involve a financial component for companies that remain on the list, according to an email sent by Princeton spokesman Michael Hotchkiss. The university said it will institute a new fund to support energy research in order to make up for some of the funding that is no longer available because of the move.
Read more: Harvard's Endowment Will Stop Investing in Fossil Fuels
Princeton's endowment was $37.7 billion as of June 2021, joining other large US colleges that have committed to divesting from the fossil-fuel industry, including Harvard and Brown universities and the University of California. After years of sustained activism from students calling for fossil fuel divestment, Harvard said last year that it would focus on supporting the green economy.