Irresponsible Science?

The Energy Institute (EI) maintains extensive financial and corporate ties to the fossil fuel industry, particularly oil and gas, across its investments, event sponsorships, corporate memberships, and governing council. While the EI adopted a strategic theme of "supporting the transition to a lower carbon world" in 2016 and has some professional guidance on environmental issues, it lacks an overarching environmental or ethical investment policy. The study finds that fossil fuel corporations heavily sponsor its major events, such as International Petroleum Week, and make up approximately 40% of its corporate members. The EI's governing council also shows strong links to the oil and gas sector, with nearly half of its members having such backgrounds. Links to the arms industry were found to be low, though the lack of an ethical investment policy suggests some indirect exposure is likely.

• The Energy Institute has very high levels of financial links to the fossil fuel industry, specifically the oil and gas sector, across investments, school education programmes, events, corporate membership, and other corporate links.
• The EI's investment portfolio includes significant fossil fuel holdings; of the 16% of the portfolio that was publicly identifiable, approximately 29% was invested in fossil fuel companies, including Royal Dutch Shell plc, BP plc, and Total SA.
• Major EI events are heavily sponsored by the oil industry. For the 2018 International Petroleum Week, 55% of sponsors were fossil fuel corporations, including primary sponsor ENI and gold sponsor Rosneft.
• There is a stark revenue disparity between the EI's oil-focused events and those focused on energy efficiency. Ticket income for International Petroleum Week was estimated to be at least £2 million, which is over 500 times the equivalent figure for the Energy Efficiency conference.
• Approximately 40% of the Energy Institute's corporate members are primarily focused on fossil fuels, including major corporations such as Aramco, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell, while only a few percent focus on renewable energy.
• The EI's leadership is closely tied to the oil and gas industry; nearly half of the governing council in 2019 had strong links to fossil fuel industries, and the President until mid-2019 was a former Managing Director of Royal Dutch Shell.
• The Energy Institute lacks an overarching environmental policy statement and an ethical investment policy, although its 'Code of Professional Conduct' requires members to have "due regard for the need to protect the environment".
• The EI has reduced its involvement in school education materials produced by industry partners, though the 'Discover Petroleum' resource remained online as of September 2019.

APA

Scientists for Global Responsibility (n.d.). Irresponsible Science? https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/5-Energy_Institute.pdf

Chicago

Scientists for Global Responsibility. Irresponsible Science? n.d. https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/5-Energy_Institute.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Scientists for Global Responsibility |title=Irresponsible Science? |url=https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/5-Energy_Institute.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{scientistsforglobalresponsibilityndirresponsible, author = {{Scientists for Global Responsibility}}, title = {{Irresponsible Science?}}, institution = {Scientists for Global Responsibility}, url = {https://www.sgr.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-10/5-Energy_Institute.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }