Prestigious academic institutions receive millions of pounds of destructive fossil fuel money – students and academics call for this to end.
On Monday and Tuesday, 14th and 15th November, students and academics at the UK’s biggest three university recipients of fossil fuel money staged coordinated action to demand Fossil Free Research, joining international action that spans the UK, US and Canada.
On Tuesday, University of Oxford students dropped a banner reading ‘Cut ties to fossil fuels’ from the iconic Bridge of Sighs. Over 50 students and academics at the University of Cambridge rallied at the University’s Downing Site on Monday. The rally was co-hosted by Cambridge Climate Justice and Cambridge SU’s Ethical Affairs campaign. Also on Monday, students, staff and alumni at Imperial College London dropped and cut in half a banner – a first at the UK’s biggest university recipient of fossil fuel money.
This came alongside actions at multiple universities across the US and Canada, with Oxford to follow in the UK, coordinated by the international coalition Fossil Free Research. They included nonviolent protest, rallies with student and community leaders, banner drops, informative stalls and an occupation.
Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, Dr Benjamin Franta, who attended the Oxford action, said: “New scientific research has found that funding from fossil fuel companies is associated with pro-fossil-fuel bias in research results. This should make us all question the wisdom of making climate solutions research dependent on fossil fuel funding. The Oxford Climate Justice Campaign and Fossil Free Research International are bringing much-needed attention to this critical and urgent issue.”
Outside Cambridge’s Department for Earth Sciences, a key recipient of fossil fuel money, Cambridge students chanted messages including “People’s homes are burning to ash. Say no to fossil fuel cash!” and “The seas are rising, so are we, but Cambridge is greenwashing Shell and BP!”. Professor Jason Scott-Warren addressed the crowd about the delay tactics that the University is employing on the issue. Students highlighted land defenders in the Global South whose lives and livelihoods are being devastated by the very companies that Cambridge is partnering with, including reading the statement that Ogoni leader Ken Saro-Wiwa was not allowed to read before his execution after standing up to Shell’s destruction.
At Imperial, students, staff and alumni – including a former head of department, Professor Jeff Waage OBE (he/him) – unveiled a banner saying “Cut ties with fossil fuels” outside Imperial’s key landmark, the Queen’s Tower. The students cut the banner in half signalling the need for a fossil free Imperial. Indeed, Imperial boasts its “long-standing and fruitful partnership with Shell” and that “Imperial College London is one of BP’s key UK university partnerships”.
Prof Waage said: “As an alumnus and former Head of Department at Imperial College London, I am disappointed that my College is a feeder university to industries like BP, Shell and Exxon-Mobil, which have flouted recent international agreements on climate change, and financed campaigns of public misinformation on its impacts. With Imperial’s outstanding reputation for research in environmental policy and protection, and its leading role in green and sustainable engineering innovation, Imperial should be sending a clear message to the fossil fuel industry that it will not continue to supply these companies with its brightest young minds.”
At the Cambridge rally, Sam Gee (he/him), 20, an organiser with Cambridge Climate Justice and Fossil Free Research, and Natural Sciences student, said: “Research ties between universities and fossil fuel companies help to bolster these companies’ false claims that they are committed to science- and people-led climate action.”
In her speech at the rally, Amelia Jabry, Postgraduate President of Cambridge SU (she/her), said: “Cambridge University is still in bed with fossil fuel giants like Shell, BP and Schlumberger. They accept regular donations from these companies. They fund PhDs with these donations […] This shouldn’t be a choice for a PhD student to make, it should be the prerogative for the university to source and supply ethical and environmentally friendly funding to its students.”
The immense size of the ties between fossil fuel companies and universities is highlighted by the £89 million invested through research ties, grants and loans at 36 different UK universities between 2017 and 2021 alone.
The Fossil Free Research movement argues that these partnerships create a fundamental conflict of interest, which risks the integrity of this vital research and the freedom of the academics pursuing it. According to a study by Columbia University published last week in Nature, academic centres which take fossil fuel money disproportionately favour these companies’ interests in their research output – an effect so strong that some reports from Stanford’s Doerr School of Sustainability were statistically indistinguishable from those of a fossil fuel industry lobbying group.
Fossil Free Research also argues that oil companies cannot be trusted as partners in researching the green transition, especially amid their ongoing efforts to greenwash their record of environmental destruction and lobby against basic climate legislation. The IEA’s 2021 World Energy Investment report highlights that a measly 1% of the oil and gas industry’s capital expenditure is devoted to clean energy.
Ioana Balabasciuc (she/her), 20, a student at Imperial, and organiser with Imperial Climate Action, said: “Fossil fuel companies are using the names of prestigious universities to validate their ongoing destruction of our planet. Our university’s climate research is simply too important to risk the corrupting influence of Big Oil’s money.”
These actions are part of a growing movement calling for fossil fuel industry ties with academic institutions to be cut. Earlier this year, the Fossil Free Research campaign released a landmark letter, now signed by over 750 academics, scientists and leading policy-makers, calling an end to fossil fuel ties. In May 2022, students occupied the University of Cambridge’s BP Institute, which the University has since renamed. More recently in the US, Princeton University announced that it would divest and dissociate from over 90 fossil fuel companies, including giants like ExxonMobil and Total. This decision includes severing of certain fossil fuel relationships in research and sponsorship, and should inspire other universities to follow suit.
Ruari McColl (he/him), 19, a student at Cambridge University, notes that “For universities like mine, which announced its divestment from fossil fuels in 2020, this is a logical and necessary next step. Without it, these universities are complicit in climate breakdown and the devastation of vulnerable communities.”
For press and general inquiries, including requests for media interviews, email climatejustice@cambridgesu.co.uk. We can offer calls with student organisers and supporting academics, including Cambridge astrophysicist Dr Emily Sandford and academics from the Cambridge Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Akaraseth Puranasamriddhi, and Dr Luke Kemp.