UNNES Accelerates Renewable Energy Transition Through Strategic Investment Alignment and Carbon-Intensive Divestment Policy

As a Legal Entity State University (PTN-BH), Universitas Negeri Semarang (UNNES) actively aligns its financial governance and investment strategies with Sustainable Development Goal 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy) and global decarbonization targets. UNNES enforces a formal institutional policy to transition away from and divest investments in carbon-intensive energy industries—particularly coal and petroleum—grounded in Rector’s Decree Number B/3669/UN37/HK.02/2024 concerning UNNES’s Commitment to Achieving Carbon Neutrality by 2045 (issued by the Rector of UNNES) and Rector’s Regulation No. 22 of 2009

Prohibition of New Investments and Treatment of Existing Portfolios

One of the core provisions in Rector’s Decree No. B/3669/UN37/HK.02/2024 (Point i) stipulates that UNNES actively establishes strategic collaborations and attracts clean energy investments specifically to replace coal and oil energy. Under this mandate, UNNES enforces strict investment rules covering both new and existing institutional funds:

1. Ban on New Carbon-Intensive Investments: UNNES prohibits allocating new university investments, commercial capital, or endowment funds to companies whose core business involves coal and petroleum exploration, production, processing, or fossil-fuel power development.
2. Treatment of Existing Investment Portfolios and Endowment Funds: Regarding existing financial portfolios and endowment placements, UNNES maintains a conservative financial structure parked in state-regulated banking instruments with zero direct equity holdings in coal or petroleum extraction companies. Any existing operational or financial ties to carbon-intensive energy are subject to systematic phased withdrawal and redirection toward green infrastructure.

Prioritizing Solar Energy Investments and Annual Monitoring

This investment policy is actively realized through careful institutional planning, most notably UNNES’s strategic partnership with Indonesia Power to develop and expand solar photovoltaic (PV) energy installations across the UNNES campus. Furthermore, Rector’s Regulation No. 22 of 2009 (Article 7) serves as UNNES’s operational guideline for switching to renewable energy—particularly solar cell technology—complementing campus-wide initiatives to eliminate the use of coal and oil fuels.

Moving forward, UNNES prioritizes redirecting capital and partnerships toward renewable energy, energy efficiency, low-carbon technologies, and environmentally conscious business activities. The implementation of this sustainable investment and divestment policy is monitored annually by the Vice Rector for Planning, General Affairs, Human Resources, and Finance to ensure full alignment with the university’s 2045 carbon neutrality roadmap.