August 18, 2022
Why Are Fossil Fuel Companies Funding Climate Change Research?
By Lisa Herforth-Hebbert
As oil and gas companies report record profits, the Fossil Free Research campaign calls on universities to refuse their donations and maintain independence.
By Ilana Cohen
Bella Kumar arrived at George Washington University excited by the school’s reputation as a prestigious research institution. But after seeing a presentation on the university’s Regulatory Studies Center and its deep ties to fossil fuel interests, Kumar was shocked.
Now, as hub coordinator of Sunrise GW, Kumar is among dozens of student activists sparking a burgeoning movement spanning higher education and research institutions from Washington, D.C., and Cambridge, Mass., to Cambridge, England, and Sydney, Australia.
Known as Fossil Free Research, the movement capitalizes on the historic success of fossil fuel divestment, which last fall pressured longtime holdout Harvard University to pledge to divest its $53 billion endowment. Like divestment, Fossil Free Research emerges in response to enduring attempts by Big Oil to spread misinformation about the climate crisis and weaken climate policy, including by seeking to enlist support from the scientific community.
