Students at UCL held a Halloween “die in” on Monday to protest the university’s investment in fossil fuels.
Around 100 protesters from Fossil Free UCL lay in front of the President’s office, pretending to have died from climate change and pollution - deaths students said the university were “complicit” in.
Chanting “UCL, UCL, don’t put us in climate hell”, the group demanded the uni divest from the fossil fuel industry.
The protest group estimates UCL has invested £14million in the industry to companies such as Shell.
A Fossil Free UCL spokesperson told the Independent: “We believe universities being complicit in human rights abuses and aiding climate change, which is already causing around 300,000 deaths a year according to UN estimates, is shocking and not at all acceptable.
“UCL presents itself as a global and ethical university, but its investments in companies that have utter contempt for the environment and the rights of environmental activists show otherwise.”
A UCL spokesperson said: “UCL’s investment policy has always included an ethical dimension, the application of which has previously resulted in the exclusion, for example, of any investment in tobacco.
“At the same time our objective is to preserve the real value of the portfolio over the long term and achieve a set level of income.
“The policy agreed by UCL Council will enable us to maintain our commitment to achieving both of these objectives.”