Selwyn criticizes ‘nonsense’ climate table after being bottom of rankings

Selwyn College has labeled a table ranking Cambridge colleges on their climate policies as ‘complete rubbish’ after placing them at the bottom.

Every college scored less than 50% in Cambridge by 2024 rankings from the Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge (CLOC), prompting calls from student activists for colleges to ‘step up’ their climate policies.

Selwyn ranked lowest of the 31 colleges with a score of 6.9%, followed by Peterhouse (9.5%) and Trinity (10.3%).

Jesus achieved the highest score (48.8%) and was praised for implementing a ‘comprehensive’ emissions reduction policy, eliminating all direct investment in fossil fuels and sourcing all electricity from renewable sources between 2018 and 2022.

Colleges were evaluated on their policies around decarbonization, fossil fuel investments and partnerships, and climate management. CLOC’s findings were advised by five Oxbridge-based researchers.

Selwyn received a low score for its efforts to decouple from fossil fuels, noting that it banks with Barclays, “one of the largest financiers of fossil fuels in the world”.

CLOC also mentioned that Selwyn has no publicly available donation policy or decarbonisation strategy, and no net zero target, just a ‘vague’ sustainability strategy.

An environmental sciences student at Selwyn told it Varsity that the findings are “a harsh indictment of the climate policy at this council”. “Cambridge colleges are ideally placed to lead on sustainability, but must be clear, transparent and effective in their policies to limit further damage to our planet,” they said.

The student also claimed the council “has not appreciated the material changes they could make to mitigate their impact on the climate”, referring to the cuts to heating in Selwyn last year, which the council said were taken for sustainability reasons.

During the budget cuts, the council has Thank you students for buying body warmers and hats to stay warm.

However, a spokesperson for Selwyn said Varsity that the table is ‘complete nonsense’, claiming that the College was ‘one of the pioneers in the field of fossil fuel divestment, as recognized Through Varsity. We have not accepted donations from fossil fuel companies.”

“We installed more this summer solar panels on the roof of one of our buildings, saving 22,000 kg of CO2 annually. We pioneered ground source heat pumps for our renovated student housing. We won a Green Impact award from the University of Cambridge, one of many things that seem to have been ignored in this research,” they continued.

Peterhouse, second at bottom of the table, and Trinity, third at bottom, were also punished for banking with Barclays.

A Trinity student shared it Varsity that they were “surprised and disappointed” by Trinity’s score, claiming the council is “proud of its net zero targets” but “needs to do much better in being transparent” about its climate policies.

Will Beattie, a CLOC representative, said: “CLOC encourages colleges to be more open with their students. This is achieved by highlighting where colleges can improve their sustainability policies and transparency. The scores show that there is still a long way to go, but we hope that CLOC will give colleges the motivation to do more.”

A member of Cambridge Climate Justice (CCJ), a student activist group, said: “CLOC is useful because it clearly shows where colleges need to go further when it comes to their sustainability policies. There have been recent successes in pushing the University to take climate action, but more is urgently needed, and we will continue to speak out on this, using CLOC as evidence to support us.”

This is what a spokesperson for Trinity College said Varsity: “Trinity College Cambridge is committed to improving sustainability, both in terms of investments and real estate. The College is divesting from all fossil fuel exposure in public equities as part of its commitment to achieving net-zero in its endowment by 2050. We have completed a carbon mapping of our investment portfolio to create a baseline and set targets for reducing both direct and CO2 emissions. indirect emissions, and continue to actively collaborate with companies in which we hold shares.”

They added: “The council’s working group on heating systems recognizes that more needs to be done and has ambitious targets and action is being taken to achieve these, which will significantly reduce Trinity’s carbon footprint.”

The University of Cambridge and Peterhouse College were contacted for comment.