A Just Stop Oil protest at the University of Exeter has put its finances under the spotlight a week after it topped a table of UK universities that are funded by fossil fuel companies.
Protestor George Simonson occupied the roof of the entrance to the university’s Streatham campus Forum building on Tuesday afternoon for three hours, calling on students and staff to join the Just Stop Oil campaign to end new UK fossil fuel licensing and production.
He used a fire extinguisher and spray cans to daub the building with red and orange paint and unfurled a Just Stop Oil banner before being dragged away by police to be arrested while onlookers cheered.
Half an hour after his arrest, the university issued a press release accompanied by a photograph of six wind turbines saying it had “signalled its commitment to promoting academic research on sustainable finance and investment by joining a global research alliance”.
Just Stop Oil protestor George Simonson on the University of Exeter Forum entrance portico
His protest followed the publication of research last week that found that the University of Exeter is the largest beneficiary of more than £40.4 million that has been pledged to UK universities by oil, coal and gas companies since the beginning of 2022.
The money takes the form of research agreements, tuition fees, scholarships, grants and consulting fees.
The £14.7 million five-year deal the university signed with Shell in November last year means it is currently receiving more than twice as much fossil fuel financing as Imperial College, London, the next largest beneficiary on the list.
DeSmog, a global research project focussed on challenging climate crisis misinformation, used freedom of information requests to compile the university funding figures.
They do not include investments in fossil fuel companies held directly and indirectly by universities.
Student campaign group People & Planet says that 3% of the University of Exeter’s £46.6 million investment portfolio was still invested in fossil fuel companies in July last year despite the university previously saying it does not invest in “entities that are involved in the extraction of fossil fuel”.
An Open Democracy investigation previously found that UK universities had accepted £89 million in funding from eight of the largest oil firms between 2017 and the end of 2021.
A crowd watches the Just Stop Oil protest at the University of Exeter this week
The university’s Strategy 2030 says it intends to be a “recognised leader in organisational, financial and environmental sustainability” and adds: “Through our ethical partnerships and investments, we will maximise our positive impact on the world.”
Last year Shell produced just 0.02% of its energy from renewable sources and intends to invest £33 billion in oil and gas production between 2023 and 2035.
When news of the university’s deal with Shell was shared internally in November, James Dyke, an associate professor in Earth System Science and assistant director of the university’s Global Systems Institute, described the partnership as “a mistake”.
He said it would put the university’s reputation at risk while also risking providing Shell with a social license to maintain its core fossil fuel operations.
At Tuesday’s protest, he said: “The central claims of Just Stop Oil, as far as I can understand, are eminently sensible and backed by the science: no new oil and gas. If we don’t do that then we could be facing a particularly catastrophic future.”
A University of Exeter spokesperson said its partnership with Shell, which began in 2007, will “contribute to the global race to net zero”.
The University of Exeter’s Strategy 2030 vision
The university’s deal with Shell is only the tip of the iceberg. Last year it also accepted a £1 million grant from the Bezos Earth Fund.
It announced the grant during a Global Systems Institute conference the day after a rocket launched by Blue Origin, a Jeff Bezos company, burst into a ball of flame shortly after take-off.
The university published a report last year that found that the lifecycle carbon dioxide emissions of rockets launched from Spaceport Cornwall were comparatively small, provided they were compared with the terrestrial emissions of the whole of Cornwall.
The report did not consider that the pollutants produced by rocket launches are released high in the atmosphere and so have a warming effect around 500 times greater than similar pollution sources closer to earth.
Last year the university formed a “strategic partnership” with the new spaceport. A key objective is to establish it as the “world’s first net zero” rocket launch site.
Green Futures Solutions, the University of Exeter’s “business support initiative”
The university also has an established “strategic partnership” with investment management firm J.P. Morgan.
The two have “enjoyed a close working relationship for several years”, according to a archived page on the university’s website. (The URL now redirects to a university commercialisation arm that “delivers game-changing sustainability solutions”.)
In 2018 they began offering the “UK’s first financial services apprenticeship with a Russell Group degree”. They have since launched an “apprenticeship scheme for aspiring investment bankers”.
According to research by a coalition of international NGOs, J.P. Morgan is the world’s largest financier of oil and gas projects, responsible for investing $51 billion in the sector in 2020 alone.
The university says it is “redefining the role of business to provide leadership for a better world”.
In March this year the university also accepted an undisclosed sum, which it described as “transformational philanthropy”, from Sheikh Al Qasimi, the ruler of Sharjah.
It will use the money to finance an extension to its Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies building, the construction of which the Sheikh previously funded.
Sharjah is part of the United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers. It owns one of the largest gas fields in the region.
The United Arab Emirates has just held a major oil and gas conference, ahead of hosting the COP28 UN climate talks in Dubai in November.
Attendees were urged to be “central to the solution” for climate change at the same time as they are increasing oil and gas production to profit from rising global energy prices.
