King's College, London, Degree Ceremony, Tuesday 25 July 2023

I am very grateful for the honour you have bestowed on me. I am also delighted to have become a member of King’s College, London. Thank you.

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As Professor Tanner mentioned, I have spent my career in the energy industry. I started at BP and was CEO between 1995 and 2007. Since then, in one way or another, I have been preoccupied with how to provide the world, technically and commercially, with energy without damaging humanity. I first put the oil industry on notice in 1997 when it was clear to me that fossil fuels were a big part of the cause of climate change. The energy industry had to become part of the solution. Over the last few years, I have been directing investment in companies to reduce greenhouse gases. Too many years have been wasted discussing and debating what to do without delivering the needed solutions. Now we must deliver. That means we must, for example, quadruple, to four trillion dollars a year, the amount of investment dedicated to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If we do, we will keep the mean temperature of the world at a safe level. But, if we don’t, we could well see temperatures rise by three degrees or more. That will be dangerous. There will be huge changes to where we can live and where we can grow food. Migration could result on a grand scale. Nations would go through wrenching political change.

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So why do I say all this on a day of celebration?

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Partly it is to remind us of an uncomfortably unfinished agenda, but partly it is to give us hope that we can avoid an existential catastrophe if we work together. It is the biggest of all challenges to create the right level of global cooperation and partnership between all the stakeholders involved – national populations, governments, businesses, financial institutions, the Global South, and the Global North. In my experience, partnership needs trust built on an alignment of explicitly stated purpose, inclusion of all relevant stakeholders, fair incentives, and proof that results have been delivered. That takes consistent leadership. When people work together, they deliver solutions. When they are isolated, they do not. That has been my experience: the large challenges of the energy business are simply too big for any single company or nation state to take on. Partnerships are the lifeblood of business, trade, academic and social progress.

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One example of this is the development of the early Covid-19 vaccines. Robust scientific and regulatory collaboration and cross-border data sharing allowed us to control the pandemic with effective testing and vaccination programmes. The Francis Crick Institute here in London, which I chair, played an important role. The Institute was founded by a partnership, of which King’s College is a proud member.

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I am also the Chairman of the Courtauld Institute of Art. Last year, we entered into a partnership with King’s for joint degrees and interdisciplinary research. The opportunities created by this new relationship will be a game-changer for humanities and the arts in the UK. Both institutions will still retain their own unique character and history, but in one important sense they will share a common vision of the future: that Higher Education institutions are stronger when they work in partnership. Our partnership speaks of a quiet self-confidence that there is another way to do business, that the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts.

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That is an enduring guide to life.

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I give my warmest congratulations to all of you graduating today, both from King’s and from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.