• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta June 29, 2022
London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty June 29, 2022
G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance June 29, 2022
Soaring Fertilizer Prices Could Deliver ‘Silver Lining’ For Emissions, But Farmers Struggle to Limit Use June 26, 2022
BREAKING: UN Nature Summit, the ‘Paris Conference for Biodiversity’, Moves to Montreal in December June 19, 2022
Next
Prev
Opinion & Analysis
Home Climate & Society Climate Action / "Blockadia"

Opinion: Stop Letting Fossils Dominate Research, Students Urge Universities

March 31, 2022
Reading time: 4 minutes
Full Story: The Nation @thenation
Primary Author: Ilana Cohen @DivestHarvard and Jake Lowe @jakelowe29

Joseph Williams/Wikimedia Commons

Joseph Williams/Wikimedia Commons

15
SHARES
 

Student organizers have seen the power of divestment come to bear by helping secure historic commitments from universities—including the world’s richest school, Harvard University—to sever their endowments from the companies driving climate breakdown, Ilana Cohen and Jake Lowe write for The Nation.

Yet at the same time that our universities have taken a crucial step toward climate leadership, they continue to engage in repugnant hypocrisy that undermines such progress: raking in fossil fuel funds for the critical climate change-related research on which our futures depend. To end our universities’ sponsorship of a deadly core business model once and for all, we need a new strategy to expose and dismantle these toxic ties by calling for fossil-free climate research.

First, this is a call to cease our universities’ role in industry greenwashing, allowing oil and gas majors to stamp their name brands on credible-seeming university research around an energy transition. Second, it’s a call to protect such research’s integrity, given established patterns of vested corporate interests leading to skewed research outcomes. Third, and perhaps most critically, it’s a call to stop the fossil fuel industry from co-opting the policy-making process and precluding the urgently needed just transition to renewable energy.

Higher education plays a key role in translating the political ambitions of the fossil fuel industry into ostensibly objective economic expertise used to inform public policy. Fossil fuel companies and the network of right-wing organizations funding their concerted climate denial and delay campaigns, referred to by sociologist Robert Brulle as the Climate Change Counter-Movement, affiliate themselves with university research that shapes public thought around an energy transition to bolster their lobbying in support of weak climate policy that preserves their profits.

The George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center provides one such example. Equipped with millions of dollars from the likes of ExxonMobil and the Charles Koch Foundation, the RSC crafts economic arguments aimed at deflating the negative economic impacts of fossil fuel emissions. These arguments are published in journal articles and submitted as public comments to regulatory agencies. Invoking the credibility of the GW name, then, RSC research cites industry-funded statisticians, established climate deniers, and allied economic consultants. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency cited the work of RSC affiliates in its decision to substantially reduce the figure used to quantify the social harms of carbon emissions in environmental regulations.

The RSC is only the tip of the iceberg. A variety of additional centres, including the MIT Energy Initiative, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, and the Harvard Kennedy School Belfer Center, are also heavily influenced by fossil fuel money and interests.

That’s why we’ve been organizing across campuses and continents to start decoupling university climate research from fossil fuel industry malfeasance. Most recently, student coordinators of the Fossil Free Research campaign launched a public letter featuring more than 500 signatures from leading academics, climate experts, and university members primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom, calling for their universities to lead the way in championing fossil-free climate research. Meanwhile, Sunrise GW has gathered more than 1,000 signatures from members of the GW community for fossil-free climate research, secured pledges from 50 faculty to reject fossil fuel research money, and is pushing university centres and institutes to adopt the same pledge. Organizations from Fossil Fuel Divest Harvard to the Oxford and Cambridge Climate Justice campaigns have published reports documenting the extent of the fossil fuel industry’s infiltration of academic research, and Extinction Rebellion Cambridge has taken direct action to call out the university’s cozy relationship with oilfield services giant Schlumberger.

For any campaigns or individuals looking to take up this cause, there are a few clear first steps.

First, find colleagues and community members ready to work together to hold your institution accountable.

Second, do your research: Start with publicly available resources such as university tax filings, research websites and publications, and fossil fuel companies’ giving reports to identify and expose fossil fuel research ties.

Third, set your tactics to move your university to action. The Fossil Free Research letter—which is now open for new signatures—provides a useful platform for these efforts by identifying faculty supporters and providing a clear message to take to your administration.

And remember, this isn’t a campaign only for campuses to take up. Many research foundations, think tanks, and academic publications, too, choose to conduct or publish fossil fuel-funded climate change research. Their rejection of such money and research could prove immensely powerful.

With divestment gains far and wide, we must channel the momentum around institutional climate accountability to ensure that our universities no longer serve as tools for suppressing the climate policy needed to ensure a livable future. By standing together as an international coalition of students, faculty, alumni, and more devoted to this common cause, we cannot fail.

This story originally appeared in The Nation and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.



in Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Coal, Culture, Oil & Gas, Opinion & Analysis, United States

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Keith Hirsche
Jobs & Training

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
392
London Eye UK England
Cities & Communities

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
120
Number 10/flickr
International Agencies & Studies

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
142

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Keith Hirsche

Ex-Fossil Workers Convert Old Oilfields to Solar Farms After ‘Rapid Upskilling’ in Alberta

June 29, 2022
392
François GOGLINS/wikimedia commons

Corrosion Problem Shutters Half of France’s Nuclear Reactors

June 29, 2022
223
David/flickr

U.S. Supreme Court Expected to Gut Emission Controls as Climate Scientists Petition for Plan B

June 26, 2022
1.2k
Danielle Scott/flickr

Advocate Urges Ottawa to Intervene Before Ontario Builds Highway 413

June 29, 2022
128
Number 10/flickr

G7 Miss ‘Golden Opportunity’, Walk Back Pledge to Cut International Fossil Finance

June 29, 2022
142
London Eye UK England

London Becomes Biggest City to Sign Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty

June 29, 2022
120

Recent Posts

AJEL / Pixabay

Windfall Tax on Food, Fossil, Pharma Giants Would Raise $490B to Solve ‘Catastrophic’ Food Crisis: Oxfam

June 29, 2022
57
futureatlas.com/flickr

Ottawa Demands Deeper Fuel Emissions Cuts, Offers Fossils a Double-Dip on Tax Breaks

June 29, 2022
77
Province of B.C./flickr

Comox Joins Municipalities Seeking Ban on New Gas Stations

June 29, 2022
75
/Piqsels

Refocus Agriculture Spending to Cut Emissions, Boost Productivity, OECD Urges Governments

June 29, 2022
28
Jimmy Emerson, DVM/flickr

Public Vigilance Key to Protecting Greenbelts for Climate Resilience, Report Finds

June 29, 2022
35
Miguel V/Wikimedia Commons

Forests Fall Short of Full Carbon Storage Potential, Study Finds

June 29, 2022
62
Next Post
2happy/StockVault

Science-Based Targets Initiative Bars Fossil Producers Until New Carbon-Cutting Standard is Set

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}