After nine years of campaigning, climate justice activists won a largely unheralded but significant battle last week when the University of Cape Town (UCT) council announced that it had agreed in principle to immediately divest from international fossil fuel investments and reinvest in renewable energy and green economy assets.

While only 2.5% of the university’s about R7bn endowment fund is invested in fossil fuels, the move signals a steadily hardening attitude on behalf of investors towards climate inaction from fossil fuel companies...