New York City, U.S.A — Climate change is very real, and the administration of NYU knows this. Their Climate Action Plan is one of the most ambitious in the world with an end goal of net carbon neutrality by 2040. Their Sustainability Office has sparked dozens of projects in order to make the University more environmentally friendly, and has convinced thousands of community members to help save the planet by recycling, using CFL bulbs and taking the stairs instead of the elevator.

These efforts are not nearly enough. NYU and its students produced a minuscule amount of the36.1 carbon-equivalent gigatons of greenhouse gases generated globally in 2013, and, as global emissions rates continue to rise year-on-year, NYU’s individual carbon footprint will become increasingly insignificant.

Simply put, individual action will not solve the climate crisis. What we need is large scale, top-down energy reform that puts the responsibility for the damaging and dangerous effects of fossil fuel consumption exactly where it belongs — on the fossil fuel industry. A carbon tax and an end to subsidies for coal, oil and natural gas companies are long overdue and the price of refusing to implement them is getting higher by the day. Good-faith agreements such as the one recently reached between the U.S. and China are a step in the right direction, but meaningful and, more importantly, binding political action is crucial if we are going to keep the rise in average global temperature below two degrees Celsius, the internationally agreed-upon threshold for maintaining a livable climate.

If NYU really is a university in the public service, then its administration has a duty to do everything it can in order to prevent that threshold from being breached. When direct, individual action is not enough, it must employ indirect measures to reduce its impact on the environment.

By removing endowment funds from the top 200 publicly-traded coal, oil and natural gas companies in the U.S., NYU can leverage its social and political capital to send a powerful message: Reliance on fossil fuels is both immoral and unsustainable. This tactic of divestment, known for its role in anti-tobacco and anti-Apartheid campaigns, has been shown to lead to greater public disapproval of the entity being ostracized from and, eventually, to political action against it. Action, via the largely symbolic act of removing university endowment funds from destructive and morally bankrupt industries, can lend a powerful hand to already-existing efforts to combat them.

Fossil fuel divestment is attractive because of its feasibility. As a study by the Aperio Group shows, there is virtually no difference in profit between a portfolio containing fossil fuel companies and one that does not. Also, the act of divesting is as simple as asking one’s financial manager to screen out the companies on that top 200 list. And while doing so would constitute a meaningful and pointed course of action, it does not promote a specific solution to the energy crisis, such as advocating for an all-nuclear power grid which has clear political overtones.

At NYU, where we have unique ties to the fossil fuel industry due to our Abu Dhabi campus in the UAE, divestment represents an opportunity to begin cutting our ties to the industry without putting any of our operations as a university at risk. Just like even the most radical environmentalist might still drive a car every now and then, NYU can divest while still accepting some of the benefits of the world’s most profitable industry.

NYU has divested twice before, once from companies profiting from exploitative laws under South African Apartheid and once, just a few years ago, from companies taking advantage of the chaos in Sudan. The need to do so again has never been clearer.

Climate change threatens us all and so I invite all of those who care about the future of the planet and who see the inherent contradiction between publicly opposing climate change and profiting from the industry responsible for causing it, to join me in supporting NYU Divest: Go fossil free.

And although the meetings will be taking place in NYU New York, climate change is still a global issue and NYU is the Global Network University. Students at every global site have something to lose if this crisis is not addressed, and, equally importantly, they have a say in the way this university is run.

Just as NYU divesting would help create a serious national and international discourse on climate change, we too can all help create a university-wide discourse on divestment. Do your research, sign NYU Divest’s petition and spread the word around your campus, wherever it is.