STUDENTS began an indefinite occupation at the University of Leeds today demanding an end to all the university’s connections with fossil fuel industries.

Occupiers moved into a lecture theatre in the Esther Simpson building, part of the university’s business school, and said they would remain until their demands were met.

They said they have written an open letter to Leeds University vice-chancellor Simone Buitendijk outlining their demands and inviting university management to meet them inside the occupied lecture theatre.

They are demanding an updated “responsible investment” policy at the university, including a ban on investments in oil, gas, coal and mining companies, refusal of funding from gas, coal and mining companies and a ban on fossil fuel industries’ recruitment through the university.

Calling themselves Student Rebellion, they said they are part of an international movement — End Fossil: Occupy! — involving occupations of universities and colleges worldwide “to end the fossil fuel economy.”

One of the Leeds occupiers, a third-year student named only as Shelley, said: “I’m occupying because the university talks about climate action but when it comes down to it, they aren’t doing enough and they aren’t doing it fast enough. 

“The solutions need to be just and we cannot do that with fossil fuel money.”

Another occupier, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “In 2019, the government recognised that the climate crisis is an emergency, but our social institutions are not acting accordingly.

“I don’t want to be missing my university work to sit in a lecture theatre and disrupt other students, but I am so tired of hearing the people that run these institutions promising change and not doing anything about it.

“We need to act much faster. I am terrified about the future that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports are predicting, so I feel a duty to take action.”

The University of Leeds had not responded to requests for comment at the time of going to press.