The University announced last week that the BP Foundation has pledged a five-year grant worth $7.5 million toward the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development. The donation from the BP Foundation — funded by energy giant BP — will aid the study of modern energy markets.

“BP’s support has allowed our program to study the world’s most pressing energy problems, such as global warming, energy poverty and the prospects for the world oil market,” said Law Prof. David Victor, who is the director of the program.

“In addition to BP Foundation support, we learn from BP’s experience as an energy company,” he added. “They operate in all the markets where we do research — such as in China and India.”

The BP grant announcement comes a little more than a month after Stanford took considerable criticism for accepting as much as $100 million from ExxonMobil for climate and energy research.

Ties to ExxonMobil drew criticism from alumni and prompted notable donor Steve Bing ‘87 to rescind a planned $2.5 million gift to the University in March; Bing also announced that he would no longer donate to Stanford.