from Sunday Herald, 20 October 2013
Universities across the UK are backing climate pollution by
investing more than £5 billion in the fossil fuel industry, an investigation by
three campaign groups has concluded.
Senior executives from the oil giants, BP and Shell, have been given 20 awards and honorary degrees by universities in the last ten years, they say. Leading Scottish universities have also been singled out for criticism for their links to oil and gas companies.
The investigation comes as campaigners prepare to launch a major push to persuade universities and other investors to withdraw their funding for fossil fuel companies. The acclaimed American writer and environmentalist, Bill McKibben, is due to bring his “Fossil Free Europe Tour” to Edinburgh later this month.
Ending investments in fossil fuel companies will start to make them “politically bankrupt”, he argued. “It will make their job of dominating the planet’s politics that much harder.”
Universities have a key role to play in combating climate change, he said. “They are one of the few places in our civilization where reason still stands a good chance of prevailing over power.”
McKibben is the founder of 350.org, which has played an important role in mobilising action to cut climate pollution globally. Along with the activist group, Platform, and the student environmental movement, People & Planet, it is this weekend publishing a report entitled ‘Knowledge and Power: the fossil fuel universities’.
The report estimates the total investment of all UK universities in the fossil fuel industry at £5.2 billion - equivalent to £2,083 for every student. Oxford and Cambridge invested by far the most, but Edinburgh was the third largest with £3.8 million in Shell, £3.4 million in the BG Group and at least another £5 million in other fossil fuel companies at the end of 2012.
Miriam Dobson, from People & Planet at Edinburgh University, pointed out that universities were institutions with a responsibility towards the wider community. “Investing in fossil fuel companies, which harm communities and destroy the climate, is simply not OK,” she said.
Edinburgh University responded by disclosing that it was launching a review of all its investments to ensure they were responsible. “We are launching a consultation process with staff and students to gather views and will be putting forward a revised investment policy in summer 2014,” said a university spokeswoman.
“Our consultation will ensure we gather a range of views from our staff, students and alumni to allow us to make a balanced decision on our future investment priorities.”
The report also highlights a series of links between the oil industry and Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. The drilling company, Cairn Energy, has funded a professorship and donated £1.4 million for a new postgraduate centre.
The company’s chairman and former Scotland rugby international, Bill Gammell, has been given an honorary degree, as has the former head of BP, John Brown. In June this year, Heriot Watt announced a £3 million research deal with Shell.
Heriot Watt accepted that it received about £5 million a year to fund research into “enhanced oil recovery”. But it pointed out that it did not invest in the oil and gas industry.
“We must reduce dependence on fossil fuels but also accept the reality that they will continue to be a vital component of energy supplies for the immediate future,” said a university spokesman.
But Kevin Smith from Platform accused universities of becoming the “victims of corporate capture” by the fossil fuel sector. “We are allowing vital public infrastructure to be used to subsidise and expand a dangerous, out-dated energy model that only benefits the profits of oil and gas companies,” he said.
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