🧃Oilfields to Ivory Towers

Welcome to The Strawman, the daily climate newsletter that’s old enough to remember when wind power was “slightly eccentric” and BP wanted to save the world.

At 77, Lord John Browne has his eyes on Cambridge — not for another energy pivot, but for the university’s top ceremonial post. But even as he gears up to become chancellor, he’s still very much a man of the energy world. Two decades after his “Beyond Petroleum” rebrand of BP, he’s watching his old company backpedal on renewables. It’s legacy vs. reality, idealism vs. investor pressure — and Browne is stuck somewhere in the middle.

Beyond ‘Beyond Petroleum’

Back in 2000, Browne made headlines by transforming BP’s image with a bold new mission: shift away from fossil fuels and invest in renewables. That move, radical at the time, helped push climate into the corporate mainstream. Fast forward 25 years, and BP has slammed the brakes on that transition. Under pressure from activist investor Elliott Management, the company has walked back its green targets, slashed renewable goals, and ditched its plans to cut oil and gas production. So… bye bye, Beyond Petroleum?

Browne, ever the diplomat, won’t criticize directly. He says companies must keep their core business viable — which, in BP’s case, still means oil. But you can tell it stings. Especially when the company’s original pivot was his brainchild.

The Sun King Returns

Once dubbed the “Sun King” for his outsized influence at BP, Browne has lived many lives since stepping down in 2007. His exit was messy — he lied to a court to block a story about his private life and was publicly outed. But he didn’t disappear. He chaired everything from the Tate to Huawei UK. He co-founded climate investment funds. He wrote books about leadership and being gay in business. And now, he’s hoping to become Chancellor of Cambridge, the university that shaped his early life.

His pitch? Cambridge should be a home for reasoned debate in an era of division. A place where disagreements strengthen society. A place that embraces both academic excellence and social responsibility. There’s a throughline here: Browne is still trying to shape the institutions he loves into something better.

Legacy, Lobbying & Low-Carbon Futures

Even as he distances himself from BP’s decisions, Browne is clear about what’s needed: a new supermajor — a company “beyond petroleum” in practice, not just in branding. He’s not naive about the politics. He knows the climate movement has hit serious resistance. The chances of a global emissions deal? “Extremely remote,” he admits. But he’s not giving up. He’s urging the private sector to lead where politicians have stalled.

He also remains a believer in diversity, shaped by both his experiences and his mother’s survival of Auschwitz. For him, inclusion isn’t just good ethics — it’s good engineering. He’s lived the cost of secrets and the power of being open, and he wants others to live with less fear.

Browne’s not out to rewrite BP’s current playbook — but he’s quietly reminding the world why he wrote the old one in the first place.