The University of Oxford accepted at least £1.6m from oil, gas and petrochemical companies in 2020-21 despite its 2035 net zero commitment, according to a report by students.
The funding was in addition to the more than £11m Oxford received from fossil fuel donors between 2015 and 2020.
The research was based on a freedom of information request filed in October by the student-run Oxford Climate Justice Campaign (OCJC). It revealed that four firms, Eni, Mitsubishi, BP and Shell, had all given donations and research funding to the university totalling between £1.6m-£1.7m from 1 August 2020 to 31 July 2021.
This included £208,700 for research funding from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and £58,600 for research funding and donations from Shell, according to the report.
The largest contribution however, came from the Italian oil group Eni. It gave more than £1.3m to the Saïd Business School, according to the FOI. Of this, it appears that £769,500 funded Eni scholarships and the remaining £571,000 supported the school’s Centre for Corporate Reputation. The report describe this as “another case of corporate greenwashing”.
The figures do not include the £100m that the petrochemical group Ineos donated to create a new institute to study antimicrobial resistance.
The researchers noted the continued presence of positions and institutions named after or dedicated to fossil fuel donors including the Eni-Oxford Africa scholarships. OCJC’s last report also found that the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies was two-thirds funded by the fossil fuel industry.
The OCJC member behind the FOI request, Philip Hutchinson, said: “Oxford often tells us that donation money doesn’t influence their research. But how can the Saïd Business School provide talks and advice on climate policy while at the same time taking money from major fossil fuel producers? It doesn’t take a genius to see that if you’re taking so much money, millions every year, this will influence what advice you’re giving to leaders.”
He added: “This is especially true for the Centre for Corporate Reputation. If you’re playing a role in deciding what is acceptable for corporations to do, this money creates a huge conflict of interest which really questions whether the Saïd Business School can actually give honest advice on these issues.”
According to the report, Oxford disclosed it had received between £20,000-£98,000 from BP in 2020-21, saying that revealing the exact amount of money donated would “undermine its ability to secure future research funding from this source”, which is a valid exemption under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
“I think that’s an inappropriate use of section 43 of the FOI act,” Hutchinson added. “It’s simply untrue to state this will damage BP’s commercial interests when information about BP’s ties to Oxford University has been out for years. Why would it only damage their commercial interests now?”
Cambridge, in contrast, publicly report the exact amount of money every company, not just fossil fuel companies, provides in research grants to the university every year.
An Oxford spokesperson said: “The University of Oxford safeguards the independence of its teaching and research regardless of the nature of their funding. Those donating money to the university have no influence over how academics carry out their research or what conclusions they reach. Researchers publish the results of their work whether the results are seen to be critical or favourable by industry or governments.
“Our research with different industries allows the university to apply its knowledge to real challenges of pressing global concern, with funding often going directly into research into climate-related issues and renewables. None of the philanthropic funding highlighted [by this report] has gone into extraction and exploration research but has been used to widen access to education, to fund scholarships, academic posts, and capital costs.”
• This article was amended on 23 February 2022. An earlier version cited the Exxon-Mobil scholarship in global health science as an example noted by the OCJC researchers of “the continued presence of positions and institutions named after or dedicated to fossil fuel donors”. The Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford contacted us after publication to say that the Exxon-Mobil scholarship has not been offered since 2013.
