Cambridge University will not accept new funding from fossil fuel companies, the higher education institution has confirmed.
University executives voted in a council meeting last week to halt funding from fossil fuel businesses and subsidiaries until a review of the donation process is complete.
The decision, announced on Monday, follows a study by former U.N. climate change envoy Nigel Topping.
In July 2019, Cambridge became the first university in the world to adopt a 2048 zero-emission target, with an aspiration to reach this goal by 2038.
In 2022, a group of academics at the university called for an end to all sponsorship and collaboration with companies involved in the fossil fuel industry. Commissioned by Cambridge’s leadership, Mr. Topping’s study reviewed how fossil fuel industry ties affected the university’s net zero mission.
Funding from industrial partners amounts to 5.1 percent of all research or philanthropy funding, the study found.
Over the last six years, Cambridge University received 0.4 percent of its funding from fossil fuel companies. At an average of £3.3 million per year, this amounted to 0.1 percent of the total university income, the study showed.
“Hence the loss of this funding … would have a small negative impact overall and a medium impact for those individuals and research areas most directly affected,” the study said.
“There would, however, likely be a more significant effect on post-doc positions and funding for PhD students, who are more often funded from a single funding source,” the report warned.
Among the risks, outlined by the Topping report, was the reputational damage to academics and the university. The author referred to the danger of academics “adopting a fossil-fuel propaganda narrative” and risk of “bias in selecting research topics.”
Criticism
Oil giants BP and Shell don’t align with the university’s level of ambition, Mr. Topping said. According to the Financial Times, Cambridge University had accepted £19.7 million from BP and Shell between 2016 and 2023.Responding to criticism over a £6 million donation by Shell in 2019, the university’s pro-vice-chancellor for research at the time, Chris Abell, had ruled out foul play.
“Academic freedom is a fundamental principle of the University, and no donor directs research that they fund - this is core to our mission, and our integrity. Any suggestion to the contrary is false,” Mr. Abell said.
The university has also been criticised for receiving large sums from other oil company executives.
Jason Scott-Warren, an English professor and member of the university Council, has queried the £20 million donation by Majid Jafar towards the development of a Cambridge children’s hospital in 2023.
The CEO and founder of Crescent Petroleum and the managing director of Dana Gas, the largest non-government-owned natural gas company in the Middle East, Mr. Jafar is also a Cambridge alumnus.
Cambridge University accepted £25 million to £49.9 million in anonymous donations in the period from 2017 to 2023. British academics have been voicing concerns over the impact of anonymous donations on the transparency of the UK’s top research-intensive universities.
A Russell Group spokesman, however, said that philanthropy constitutes an important form of income for universities, which are struggling with a shortage of domestic teaching staff and poor public funding of research.
