Cambridge ‘sidelining ethics’ by accepting £20m from UAE tycoon
CAMBRIDGE University has been accused of “sidelining ethical considerations” after accepting a £20 million donation from a UAE oil tycoon.
Students and academics have criticised the university’s decision to accept funds from Majid Jafar, chief executive and founder of Crescent Petroleum, the largest privately owned oil and gas company in the Middle East, because of his comments on climate change.
Jason Scott-warren, an English profess or and member of University Council, claimed that Cambridge “persistently sidelines ethical considerations in its efforts to secure donations to fund its mission”.
He told Varsity, the Cambridge student newspaper: “When large sums of money are offered for projects that enhance our research and teaching, human rights violations and flagrant planet-trashing become distinctly secondary concerns”.
At the Cop28 in Dubai last year, Mr Jafar, a Cambridge alumnus, said that “blaming the producers of oil and gas for climate change is like blaming farmers for obesity”. At the conference, the businessman told António Guterres, the UN Secretary-general, he should have travelled to the conference in “a wooden boat powered with sails and oars”, when asked about the continuation of fossil fuels.
He has been a vocal defender of the development of oil and gas amid the energy transition. In 2022, he said: “Somehow, it got misconstrued that we don’t need oil and gas any more. Nobody actually said that.”
The Jafar family is donating £20 million towards the development of a Cambridge children’s hospital and research institute.
The donation came after Mr Jafar’s daughter was diagnosed with a rare neurogenetic disorder.
It was approved by the university’s Committee on Benefactions and External and Legal Affairs (CBELA), which scrutinises any proposed large donations.
A report commissioned by the university recommended that it halt all funding from fossil fuel companies last year. The report, led by Nigel Topping, a former UN climate action champion, found that the university’s acceptance of research funding from the fossil fuel industry poses “high reputational risk” and urged Cambridge to “clarify ” CBELA’S scrutiny of donations from parties associated with oil and gas.
The university has pledged to implement some of the recommendations but has not yet imposed a ban on research funding from oil companies.
Mr Scott-warren said he fought against the donation when it made its way through university governance.
He said: “It was clear that Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas were banking on an expansion of fossil fuel demand to 2030 and beyond.” Sam Hutton, chairman of the Cambridge Student Union’s Ethical Affairs campaign, also criticised the decision to accept the donation.
A university spokesman said the donation was accepted after “robust due diligence procedures to scrutinise compatibility and alignment with our mission and values”.
A spokesman for Mr Jafar said: “The Cop28 declaration in December last year clearly accepted the need for natural gas as a transition fuel to replace dirtier fuels like coal and diesel”.