Universities, the oil industry and climate change

In case you thought government energy policy had shifted dramatically in favour of renewable sources, acknowledging the serious consequences of climate change and recognising that the fossil fuel industry must eventually decline and die, think again.

‘Degrees of Capture’, the new in-depth report published by Corporate Watch, PLATFORM and the New Economics Foundation, demonstrates how, despite the government’s own stated goals in the face of global warming of ‘reducing our use of fossil fuels, and replacing them with non-fossil sources’, huge sums of public money are being spent on research of direct use only to the oil industries, while universities are allowing themselves to slip ever further into reliance on a moribund industry. The report looks at several different areas of capture of the UK higher education sector by the oil and gas industry: research and development itself, recruitment and training, the personal links and institutional mechanisms of capture, and why this capture hampers efforts to curb climate change. The report focuses on the ‘upstream’ (exploration and production) sector of the industry.

The International Petroleum Reseach Directory lists about 1000 R&D projects carried out in UK universities. The value of such research is protected by confidentiality agreements, but is estimated to be worth around £67m/year. Over 50% of these oil and gas R&D projects are paid for solely by the taxpayer, and a further 23% are part publicly funded. The direct public subsidy is estimated at £36m. The balance comes from sponsorship of research projects by oil and gas companies. Pressure to find industry co-funding for research projects naturally favours projects related to the large, mature fossil fuel industry over the small, emergent renewables industry. Much of the research funded is geological – finding new fields and determining how best to exploit them; other research is engineering based. Thus most R&D serves to expand available, economically viable oil and gas reserves.

At the same time, universities are providing the oil and gas industry with valuable trained recruits. Course curricula in relevant subjects such as geology are increasingly tailored to the needs of the industry, with some areas of study actually set in collaboration with industry representatives. According to the Principal of Robert Gordon University, ‘The university is proud that its courses are highly responsive to the demands of employers – our staff … actively go out and meet employers to determine their education and training requirements.’ In effect, training costs which previously fell on companies are being increasingly passed on to publicly-funded universities in a further hidden subsidy to the industry.

Much of this capture has come about through industry involvement in higher education at departmental, university and government levels. The report details the web of staff secondment and revolving doors (academics taking jobs in the oil industry and vice versa); industry funding of academic positions and donations of cash, buildings etc.; honorary degrees and appointments for industry managers; and the disproportional representation of the oil and gas industry on higher edication policy bodies such as Research Councils and Foresight Committees.

Some very serious conclusions can be drawn from this evidence. In the first place, UK universities are directly contributing to the continued and increased competitiveness of the oil and gas industry. This effectively reduces the relative competitiveness of renewable energy, making it economically more difficult to combat climate change. Thus, government policy directly contradicts itself. In the second place, the report notes that capture by the oil and gas industry is particularly strong in certain universities: Cambridge, with its new BP Institute, Imperial College, London, Aberdeen, Dundee, Robert Gordon and Heriot-Watt. In these universities, whole departments are becoming dependent on oil and gas industry collaboration, which can only have detrimental effects on academic freedom now, and on the viability of those departments in future as the oil and gas industry declines. The high proportion of Scottish universities being ‘captured’ (as a result of their proximity to North Sea oilfields) should be of particular concern for Scotland.
The researchers experienced great difficulties acquiring the information for this report. There are no registers of universities’ corporate connections and such information as was available was difficult to access and limited in scope. Publicly-funded universities should be publicly accountable: publishing registers of industrial sponsorship, both research contracts and other aspects of academic life, and recognising that the integrity of academic institutions outweighs considerations of commercial confidentiality.
‘Degrees of Capture’ looks in detail only at one part of the oil and gas industry. There is considerable evidence that a similar pattern of hidden subsidy and capture is also taking place with other industries gaining influence over universities with potentially very serious impacts not only on higher education, but on society and the planet as a whole.

Degrees of Capture is available from Corporate Watch for £3.50 inc. p&p, or go to http://www.corporatewatch.org/pages/degrees_of_capture.htm for the pdf version. Email degrees@corporatewatch.org if you want more information or to comment on the report. We can also provide speakers on this issue for events.