Climate ecologist Professor Karen Wiltshire has been appointed College’s first inaugural CRH chair of climate science.
The announcement has renewed concerns about College’s partnership with the position’s primary sponsor CRH, owner of Ireland’s third largest industrial carbon emitter, Irish Cement.
The original announcement from college stated that this position is part of the “continued investment in research and innovation, to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable built environment” by CRH.
In a post to X/Twitter, outgoing environmental officer of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) Nathan Hutchinson Edgar said: “At the start of my term as TCDSU’s environmental officer I had a meeting with a member of senior management. I was personally assured that a policy would be put in place to prevent polluting corporations funding research in the college. This seems to have been lost since”.
When asked to comment on this matter a spokesperson for Trinity said: “The proposed donation was approved by College in 2020 so will have pre-dated any recent conversation.”
“It is damaging to the university’s credentials as an institution claiming to take the climate crisis seriously”, Edgar added.
“Yet this is typical of Trinity’s approach”, he continued, “claiming we need to bring polluting corporations on board, effectively greenwashing their operations”.
“The approach needed would instead be willing to criticise these corporations and the neoliberal systems they are a part of.”
A similar sentiment was echoed by TCD Environmental Society in an open letter addressed to the provost and college community where they noted their “significant concern” following Monday’s announcement.
The letter added that the announcement was “unaccompanied by surprise” and that Trinity students “have grown weary of the college’s climate research being funded by businesses clearly hostile to effective climate action”.
TCD Environmental Society went on to mention college’s past partnership with prominent polluter Coca-Cola and also recalls how College previously accepted funding from the Ryanair Sustainable Aviation Research Centre.
“Partnership with such firms and uncritical regurgitation of their empty claims to sustainability amounts to attempted absolvement of their enormous contributions to the climate crisis”.
“It assists in greenwashing of corporations and actively shields them from scrutiny”, it continued.
While CRH will not have input into the work carried out by Professor Wiltshire TCD Environmental Society stated how this “does not remedy the fundamental issues inherent to the development”.
The letter concluded by stating: “While Trinity remains a ‘corporate college’, it will remain not only an enabler of but a major contributor to the climate crisis”.
TCDSU President Jenny Maguire also took to social media sharing a letter she wrote to the provost on the matter.
The letter said TCDSU are “incredibly concerned” by College accepting funding from CRH saying “last year, the then environmental officer was told specifically that this would not happen”.
Maguire also criticised TCD’s current climate model to combat the climate crisis saying how it “is not only poor, but consistently hypocritical due to corporate sponsorships including Ryanair and Cola-Cola”.
Responding to criticism, College told Trinity News: “We work with industry because we want to make things better. Trinity warmly welcomes CRH’s support for the Chair in Climate Science. We also look forward to the impactful research that will emerge from this position”.
Following news of Wiltshire’s appointment, Provost Linda Doyle stated that “it has never been more urgent for universities to pursue ground-breaking climate research”.
Wiltshire expressed her excitement for her new position, saying it gives her “hope for Ireland’s climate resilience and future sustainability”.
According to their website, CRH plans to be carbon neutral by the year 2050 and are currently implementing a 2030 “decarbonization roadmap” in order to reduce their CO2 emissions.
