Swansea University has followed the lead of other educational establishments in the United Kingdom to ban dirty fuel companies from recruiting on campus.
As Swansea Bay News reported, the Welsh institution has implemented a new "Ethical Careers Policy" that will prohibit oil, gas, and tar sands companies from accessing career fairs and employer events. Furthermore, the university will not advertise positions for these types of firms.
Swansea University has joined six other universities, including the University of Bedfordshire, University of the Arts London, Wrexham Glyndwr University, and Birkbeck, University of London, in taking this stance.
The movement, championed by student-led activists People & Planet, is trying to stop climate wreckers from bolstering their ranks with soon-to-be graduates.
"It is vital that our universities show with actions, not words that they are taking the side of climate justice, and not of the industries driving us deeper into a climate crisis that is harming the least responsible first and worst," a co-director at People & Planet J Clarke said in November 2022.Â
The Swansea University campaign has been going for 18 months after it secured support from the University Colleges Union and the Swansea Student Union.
Hal Szary, a student campaigner at Swansea University, called the move "historic," and that while "there is more to be done," it signals to dirty fuel companies that young academics are serious about change in the energy and mining industries.
"It's no secret that fossil fuel companies are the main drivers of human-induced climate change," Szary told Swansea Bay News. "As we witness record temperatures in Europe, wildfires tearing through Greece, Hawaii, and Canada, and catastrophic flooding in India, China, and Spain, there can be no doubt that we are in the 11th hour."
Indeed, 2023 marked the hottest year ever on planet Earth, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service, so drastic action is needed to stop temperatures rising further and exacerbating these extreme weather conditions.
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