Oxford University took at least £1.6m last year from fossil fuel firms
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 Eni-Oxford Africa scholarships, the Exxon-Mobil scholarship in global health science. 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.
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