Cambridge Climate Justice (CCJ) led a protest against the University Careers Service this afternoon (5/11).

Around 20 students gathered outside Great St Mary’s Church, unfurling banners that read “Fossil Free Careers” and “No Future in Fossil Fuels”.

The activists were calling for the Careers Service to adopt “an ethical careers policy that explicitly excludes fossil fuel, mining, and arms companies from recruitment opportunities”.

“Implementing an ethical careers policy will not restrict students’ careers choices, but empower them to make informed decisions,” the lead speaker continued.

This comes two weeks after another CCJ protest at the Engineering and Tech Careers Fair, which criticised the attendance of several companies.

The speaker argued that the Careers Service was “even lagging behind University policy,” highlighting Cambridge’s decisions to only accept fossil fuel funding in “exceptional circumstances” and – more recently – to divest from “controversial weapons”.

In between speakers, the protesters chanted “From Cambridge to Palestine, occupation is a crime,” and “say it loud, say it clear, we want fossil free careers”.

A member of the Organisation of Radical Cambridge Activists (ORCA) then gave a speech about the links between fossil fuels and various world crises. “Divesting from fossil fuels, it means divesting from arms. It means free Palestine, it means free Congo, it means free Sudan,” they said.

One speaker argued that the ban on mining companies should include those extracting “minerals used in renewable energy systems,” as they also “depend on the exploitation of poor, marginalised, and racialised populations”.

The ORCA spokesperson similarly warned against “dangerous green futures,” painting University environmental initiatives like the Cambridge Institute of Sustainability and Aviation Impact Accelerator as greenwashing.

The protest leaflets featured QR codes linking to a UK-wide campaign against the presence of fossil fuel companies at careers fairs led by People and Planet.

The leaflets also stated: “The fossil fuel industry is responsible for the climate crisis, implicated in human rights abuses across the world, and has been funding climate denial for decades.

“The impacts of a mine are devastating to people and environment: poisoned waterways, contaminated soil, violent displacement of communities, exploitation of workers, destruction of local ecologies.

“We demand that our universities stop acting as a recruitment pipeline for the industries most responsible for climate and ecological breakdown,” it continued. 

The University of Cambridge has been contacted for comment.