There has to be "recognition and engagement" of the fossil fuel industry's role in the global transition to green energy, the new vice-chancellor of Oxford University has said.

Professor Irene Tracey wants the university to be a leader in what she called the "most pressing issue of our times".

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At her inaugural ceremony on Tuesday at the Sheldonian Theatre, she announced her intention for Oxford University to be a centre of interdisciplinary research on finding climate solutions.

But she also stressed the need to include the scientific expertise and financial backing of oil companies.

She said she would commission an independent analysis of pay and conditions for the university's staff, after several days of strikes in November and continued non-strike action such as working to contract and refusing to volunteer.

Speaking ahead of her speech, she said conversations with the students are ongoing about the need to engage with legacy energy companies.

In response to a student report published last year which found that the university received more than £1.6 million in funding and donations from fossil fuel companies in one financial year, she said: "We have a devolved structure here, so each college can decide on its own disinvestment.

"I'm more interested in how we need to have the conversations with some of these industries.

"It's less about the money and donations, it's about, actually, how they need to help us find the solutions and put their resources into helping to find the solutions because they've got the resources.

"It's about recognising that we have to start to think about pragmatic solutions to how we're going to address this issue and in many ways, maybe we are freer, as a university sector, to do that than governments.

"The upshot is that it's going to be very difficult to wean off oil in the short term, we can't just do that tomorrow, we don't have enough alternative energies to do that.

"So to a certain extent there has to be still that recognition and engagement of that industry, and they've also got a great science and engineering base to come up with some of the solutions, they've also got the finances to do it.

"I think it's about educating our students, having the dialogue, getting real about how we're going to solve this, and recognising that actually, some of the solutions will have to come from the very industry that's part of the problem.

"And we're just going to have to embrace that and get our heads around it."

Oxford University's guidance on accepting fossil fuel donations and funding says such money should be taken "only where the purpose explicitly relates to enabling meaningful accelerations away from carbon usage and speeding the transition to net zero carbon".

 

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This story was written by Matthew Norman, he joined the team in 2022 as a Facebook community reporter.

Matthew covers Bicester and focuses on finding stories from diverse communities.

Get in touch with him by emailing: Matthew.norman@newsquest.co.uk

Follow him on Twitter: @OxMailMattN1