Oil, gas, and mining industries cause immense environmental and social harm.

Their operations are accelerating the ecological emergency, wrecking the climate, polluting the water and permanently destroying landscapes.

They are displacing people from their homes and lands, destroying livelihoods, demolishing sacred indigenous sites and leaving workers and communities with severe health problems.

There is no future for jobs in these industries: they are dead end jobs for students and graduates. Even the most conservative science states we need to dramatically scale down resource extraction if we are to avoid the worst impacts of the climate and ecological crisis.

On the 24th October 2021, the Open University committed to fully divesting from all fossil fuels. And yet the Careers and Employability department at the OU has no policy to exclude these companies from its careers services.

The OU claims to be an environmentally responsible organisation. It needs to stop putting new workers into oil, gas and mining industries, and start building the sustainable, ethical workforce we need to transition to a just and equitable energy system and low-carbon economy.