Why do I want to be environment officer?

I am campaigning to get UEA to cut ties with Barclays, Europe’s number one financier of the fossil fuel industry.

While we have seen major campaign victories, namely the divestment of the endowment fund with Barclays and the removal of the Barclays branch from campus, UEA still uses Barclays for day-to-day banking and invites Barclays to CareerCentral events.

I am committed to overseeing divestment from Barclays, instead of spreading myself too thin over multiple issues.

If I succeed with the Divest Barclays campaign, there are many other issues I would turn my focus to, like getting other extractive companies out of our careers events and securing more funding for the biodiversity department.

What environmental advocacy experience do I have?

I am currently the union council representative and treasurer for Sustainability Society, in which role I helped run the COP26 festival. Last academic year, I served as a non-portfolio officer and sponsored the Divest Barclays motion as well as the Sustainable Travel Policy motion. In addition, I sat on the university’s environmental systems management implementation teams, where I fought for a more ambitious sustainable food policy. In summer 2020, I joined Fossil Free Pride to push pride festivals in the UK to cut ties with the fossil fuel industry and the banks that fund it. I have been an active member of Extinction Rebellion UEA since arriving at UEA in autumn 2019, and we successfully pushed the Barclays branch off campus.