Accountable Allies: The Undue Influence of Fossil Fuel Money in Academia
In recent years, fossil fuel combustion has been responsible for approximately 73 percent of the U.S.’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 89 percent of the world’s emissions. While taxpayers have been forced to pick up the tab for the climate crisis, fossil fuel companies have continued to prosper. In 2021, leading fossil fuel companies made $205 billion in profits, of which their executives pocketed $394 million.
It’s no mistake that fossil fuel companies have continued to make major financial gains through the climate crisis; fossil fuel industry executives, knowingly, have long misled the public about their impact on it and used their profits to manipulate climate research. Many of the nation’s most prominent universities, including Harvard, MIT, and George Washington, are awash with fossil fuel funding.
New research conducted by Data for Progress confirms this, finding hundreds of millions of dollars donated from key fossil fuel companies to fund climate research at many of these academic institutions.
Climate activists, allies, academics, and universities can cut the dangerous tie between academia and the fossil fuel industry via policies that crack down on fossil fuel funding. In the third edition of our Accountable Allies project, Data for Progress empowers advocates with tools and information to hold companies accountable for exploiting the credibility of academic institutions. These resources include a compilation of research funding donated by specific fossil fuel companies, polling from Data for Progress that demonstrates that these contributions decrease university favorability, and a policy memo to facilitate a deeper understanding of this complex issue and provide recommendations for universities, academics, and advocates seeking to hold both fossil fuel companies and universities accountable.
FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY DONATION TRACKER
POLL: VOTERS DISAPPROVE OF FOSSIL FUEL FUNDING OF CLIMATE RESEARCH AT UNIVERSITIES
New Data for Progress polling conducted from January 20-23 surveyed 1,230 national likely voters to test their attitudes toward universities that accept fossil fuel funding for climate research.
Two-thirds of likely voters (67 percent) agree that a college or university’s values and political actions matter to them and would impact whether or not they would support or donate to the school.
Voters’ favorability of a university decreases when they are told about its acceptance of fossil fuel funding for climate research. Notably, both Harvard and Stanford favorability drop by double digits, from 61 percent to 47 percent and 59 percent to 46 percent, respectively.
We also find that:
More than three-quarters of voters (77 percent) support universities adopting funding transparency policies to identify all funding sources behind published research.
A strong majority of respondents (70 percent) support universities developing public gift acceptance policies to communicate whom the school will accept donations from and how those donations can be used.
A majority of respondents (52 percent) would support a law preventing the federal government from using research with conflicts of interest when creating policies.
More than half of voters (58 percent) support increasing federal funding for climate research at colleges and universities.
