UK universities take £40m in fossil fuel funding since 2022

Major fossil fuel companies have committed tens of millions of pounds in funding to UK universities since 2022, it can be revealed, despite many of these institutions having actively pledged to divest from oil and gas.

According to freedom of information requests submitted by the climate journalism site DeSmog, more than £40.4m in research agreements, tuition fees, scholarships, grants and consultancy fees have been pledged to 44 UK universities by 32 oil, coal and gas companies since 2022.

The largest contributors were Shell, the Malaysian state-owned oil company Petronas, and BP. These three companies account for more than 76% of the total figure awarded, having given £20.98m, £5.19m and £4.89m respectively.

A further 10 companies made up nearly 20% of the remaining contributions during this period: Sinopec, Equinor, BHP Group, Total Energies, Eni SPA, Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Kellas Midstream, Ithaca Energy and Chevron.

Previous reporting from openDemocracy and the Guardian found that between 2017 and December 2021, £89m in funding was given to UK universities by some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies.

These partnerships have shown no sign of abating, and DeSmog’s research shows an additional £40m has been pledged since 2022, even after 102 higher education institutions promised to stop taking funding from the fossil fuel industry.

The Green party MP Caroline Lucas said: “Young people care so deeply about protecting the planet because their futures are on the line. Yet fossil fuel giants are putting that future at risk with their planet-wrecking pollution, and then attempting to youthwash their reputation by handing over dirty money to universities.

“If we’re going to tackle the climate emergency and secure a livable future for the next generation, educational institutions should cut all ties with fossil fuel companies immediately.”

The figures do not include the amount held in fossil fuel investments by universities. Research by DeSmog indicates that at least 18 higher education institutions held direct investments in 25 fossil fuel companies over the relevant time period, collectively worth a further £8.1m.

Many top universities also hold stakes in high-value pooled investment funds that are pouring hundreds of millions into fossil fuel companies. Research conducted by the student campaign group People & Planet estimates that, as of July 2022, as much as £319m was still held in these funds by universities across the UK, including some institutions that have made promises to divest.

More than 65% of the country’s higher education institutions have refused to make further fossil fuel investments, potentially removing £17.7bn from the reach of the industry, while 51 universities have yet to divest from oil and gas.

Laura Clayson, the climate campaigns manager at People & Planet, said: “We say to those 51 universities left to divest: the student movement will remain unwavering in its demands for justice until our victory list includes every single one of you.”

The University of Exeter has received the most from fossil fuel firms since 2022, having signed a £14.7m, five-year deal with Shell in November for a project on “carbon storage and sequestration”.

According to the contract award notice, the project is part of a “wider Shell-led research programme focused on sequestration which aligns with Shell’s target to be a net zero emissions energy business by 2050”.

Last year, Shell produced only 0.02% of its energy from renewable sources, and this year has dropped its target to cut oil production.

The company recently abandoned plans to cut oil production by 1%-2% each year until 2030, and will be investing £33bn in oil and gas production between 2023 and 2035, compared with just £8bn-£12bn in “low-carbon” products.

Shell claims it has reduced oil production more quickly than expected, though the company’s planned emissions between 2018 and 2030 are estimated to account for nearly 1.6% of the global carbon budget.

Shell declined to comment. A University of Exeter spokesperson said its work with Shell would “contribute to the global race to net zero”.

Recent research from the University of Queensland shows more than half of the world’s top fossil fuel producers will fail to meet climate targets unless they expand plans to decarbonise. A UN report has said the world will miss its climate targets unless it commits to “phasing out all unabated fossil fuels”.

Imperial College London has received the second-highest amount of funding from fossil fuel firms since 2022, at £6.7m, having already received £54m from oil and gas companies between 2017 and 2021.

A spokesperson for Imperial said it pledged in 2020 to only engage in research partnerships “with fossil fuel companies where the research forms part of their plans for decarbonisation, and only if the company demonstrates a credible strategic commitment to achieving net zero by 2050”.

The university has maintained a working relationship with 13 fossil fuel companies since 2022.

The University of Manchester houses the International Centre for Advanced Materials research unit, a collaboration between BP and leading universities in the UK and US, including Manchester, Cambridge and Imperial. The centre’s website says it supports “BP’s ambitions to become a net zero company by 2050”.

BP generated just 0.17% of its energy from renewable sources in 2022. In the first half of last year, the company spent more than 10 times the amount on new oil and gas projects than it did on “low carbon” energy. In 2022, 92.7% of all activity for BP and Shell went into fossil fuel investment.

As with Shell, BP posted record profits in 2022, of about £23bn, while scaling back plans to cut emissions by 2050, saying it needed to keep investing in new oil and gas to meet consumer demand. BP did not respond to a request for comment.

The University of Manchester’s funding agreements with BP stretch back to 2008, when it was selected by the company to run its Projects and Engineering College. The university has also received money from Shell and TotalEnergies.

A spokesperson for the institution said: “Since 2019 all new research funded in the BP ICAM has been focused on topics in materials sciences that support the energy transition, providing research to support BP’s goal to become a net zero company by 2050.”

A spokesperson for Heriot-Watt, which received the third-largest amount of funding, at just over £6m, said the university was committed to a rapid and just energy transition, led by our world-class research and teaching. We work in collaboration with the energy sector to develop education and research opportunities related to net zero, responsible consumption of oil and gas, and the transition to renewable energy sources.”

Fossil fuel companies have pledged to fund scholarships and tuition fees across at least 17 universities since 2022.

The Italian energy multinational Eni funded a scholarship programme at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School in 2022 called the Africa Scholarship, as well as a scholarship programme with St Antony’s College, Oxford.

Oxford has previously said it “receives funding from and donations from companies and organisations from the fossil fuel sector” typically at an average of £3m a year in research funding and £2m in philanthropic donations. It says the research funding is equivalent to less than 1% of the university’s research turnover.

Additional reporting by Joey Grostern and Sam Bright