Cambridge SU blueprints a fossil fuel-free Cambridge University

Cambridge University SU has described what a big oil free University of Cambridge might look like in a new manifesto which urges students to sign its petition to ‘Kick Fossil Fuels out of Cambridge’.

In an ambitious blueprint for a swift transition to a fossil-free university, the student group – a merger of CUSU and the Graduate Union – focuses on the University’s “extensive remaining entanglements with fossil fuels, the fossil fuel industry and its top funders”. The areas identified as of immediate concern are:

1. ‘Incomplete and distant emissions targets which disregard basic climate justice principles and guarantee the University will continue emitting greenhouse gasses decades into the future’

2. ‘Ongoing research and sponsorship partnerships with fossil fuel companies, including fossil fuel industry sponsored professorships and academic awards, industry-sponsored research which directly facilitates continued extraction of fossil fuels and active promotion of fossil fuel industry jobs to students by the University’s careers service’

3. ‘Major relationships with the banks pumping billions each year into new fossil fuel projects’.

“This manifesto aims to unite the local environmental movement under a new set of demands to kick fossil fuels out of the University and begin to align its environmental policies with principles of climate justice and equity,” says Cambridge SU’s undergraduate president Zak Coleman.

“The manifesto argues that these links are fundamentally incompatible with the University’s stated commitment to addressing the climate crisis and actively work against a just transition away from fossil fuels. As Europe’s wealthiest University, which has publicly acknowledged its disproportionate responsibility for global emissions, the manifesto argues that the collegiate University’s current policies represent a stunning betrayal of its responsibilities at this time of existential crisis.”

The core demands of the Cambridge SU’s ‘Petition for a Fossil Free Cambridge’ are for a fossil-free estate, a fossil-free campus and fossil-free finances. It says that for zero greenhouse gas emissions status can only be achieved by 2030 “with substantial emissions cuts each year” (as per Cambridge County Council).

To achieve this, the community says the University and colleges must “halt all new research, sponsorship and funding collaborations with the fossil fuel industry”, “institute a ban on research which helps to facilitate further fossil fuel extraction”, and “instruct the Careers Service to immediately halt all promotional activities in relation to the fossil fuel and extractive mining industries”. It also demands that “the University and its Colleges must immediately establish and begin to fundraise for a dedicated Sustainable Research Fund to replace fossil fuel industry funding”.

The University does support some incredible work into CO2-free technology, however the Cambridge SU suggests this is in parallel with its ongoing collaboration with fossil fuel entities: Cambridge SU demands a 100 per cent switch away from investments using fossil fuel-originated money.

Zak Coleman says: “The concept of the research fund is based on the idea that we don’t need to rely on fossil fuel industry funding to conduct climate-related research. The University has a very well-established and successful fundraising department which is more than capable of garnering significant sums from individuals and industries which are not destroying the planet.

“Our proposal is for the University to create and fundraise for a Sustainable Research Fund which would utilise this fundraising capacity to create a source of funding which does not have the major downside of greenwashing the fossil fuel industry’s reputation, undermining the independence and scientific credibility of our research and shift the terms of research towards areas favourable to fossil fuel industry interests.”

The suggestion of this new fund comes at a time of growing awareness of the scientific challenges presented by the climate change crisis – even the effects felt in the UK, recently rocked by Storm Eunice. The issue is not whether the storm was directly caused by climate breakdown – it probably wasn’t, though the rainfall and storm surge aspects of the storms were likely made worse by it. However, on Saturday (February 19) wind generated 37.7 per cent of the UK’s electricity requirements – and the challenge is that the energy is harvested but not effectively stored. Much is wasted.

Zak Coleman concluded: “It is deeply shocking to see our University falling so profoundly short of its responsibilities on the climate crisis. Cambridge University launders the reputations of the companies that are destroying its students’ futures through a mind-boggling range of research partnerships and other collaborations. It is time for our entire University and Cambridge community to come together to demand that University management kick fossil fuels out of Cambridge once and for all.”

Harvey Brown, of Cambridge Climate Justice at Jesus College, said: “Our university is complicit in climate catastrophe. This manifesto makes this clear in no uncertain terms: we are funded by fossil fuels, bank with the funders of fossil fuels, and send our graduates into the fossil fuel industry through the careers service. Our legitimation and support of the fossil fuel industry is the result of a neocolonial commitment to putting the profit of these corporations above the lives of countless communities in the global South.

“Right now, we are squarely on the wrong side of history. This manifesto sets out the important next steps for us all in these crucial years to come. Most importantly, it demonstrates that there’s a role for everyone in the climate movement. As the 2020 divestment announcement showed, change happens when students, staff and community members stand in solidarity. A fossil-free future is ours to make. See you out there!”

A University of Cambridge spokesperson said: “The University of Cambridge published its relationships with energy companies at the start of the COP26 global climate change talks in Glasgow to show how we are working with partners to accelerate progress to renewable or decarbonised energy.

“We hope this will spur further action, engagement and debate on the urgently needed steps for a transition to a sustainable future.”