Imperial to publish ethical framework on fossil fuel partnerships

One of the UK’s leading research universities is likely to stop working with some fossil fuel companies as it introduces a new system that will reveal how it assesses firms on their decarbonisation efforts.

Imperial College London has already vowed to cut research ties with energy companies that are not demonstrably working to transition towards low-carbon technology, but it will now publish how it grades its industrial partners on their net zero promises.

The Russell Group university, which attracted £61 million in industry funding in 2022-23, is one of the top three UK universities for research funding from fossil fuel companies.

Mary Ryan, vice-provost for research and enterprise at Imperial, told Times Higher Education that the new framework would provide clarity and openness about how it selected commercial research partners.

“We will publish exactly what we are measuring and the data points we are using to assess fossil fuel companies,” said Professor Ryan, who acknowledged that the “transparent metrics” would lead to some “hard conversations” both internally and publicly about Imperial’s industrial partnerships.

“We know it’s going to be hard, but we want those hard conversations,” said Professor Ryan.

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Releasing its methodology and scores of individual firms would help to move the debate about working with fossil fuel companies away from the “very binary thinking” of engagement versus non-engagement, believed Professor Ryan.

“It means looking at a company that might have investments in electric vehicles or offshore wind energy but is also involved in [oil or gas] exploration to make a decision on what potential it has to move from a major fossil fuel company to a major green energy firm,” she said.

Wasteful practices – such as gas flaring, in which emissions from oil extraction are burned off rather than captured – would, however, be major red flags that are “not consistent with our stated [sustainability] strategy”, said Professor Ryan, who predicted that Imperial would sever links with some firms that did not measure up against the new framework.

“I am expecting there are companies that we will look to disengage from – it is a possibility,” she said, adding that this would depend on forthcoming assessments of partners’ annual financial reports. “We have to be convinced that they are working towards a transition,” said Professor Ryan.

Imperial’s new framework – which it believes will be the first for a UK university – follows its decision in 2020 to divest from fossil fuel companies that were not working towards Paris Agreement targets to cut global emissions by 50 per cent by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050.

That move led to wider discussions with staff about research engagement with the energy sector, said Professor Ryan. “It quickly became clear that many felt Imperial’s investment in these companies was not making a difference, but its research might,” she said, adding that it was feared that “it could look hypocritical” if Imperial’s research was assisting polluting industries, which led to an end of research aimed at maximising oil and gas extraction.

“There were some arguments about academic freedom, but we agreed on the broader direction of travel and that we had to pivot [away from these activities],” said Professor Ryan.

Imperial’s framework will not dilute its commitment to working with industry but should help to spark conversations about the right way to assess the ethical credentials of polluting companies, said Professor Ryan. “Industrial partnership is in Imperial’s DNA – our charter says we have to work with industry – but this is a new process about the broader principle of partnership and how we make a difference through these partnerships,” she said.

jack.grove@timeshighereducation.com