Oil and gas companies have been funding climate change research, and that has resulted in fewer studies being done about mitigating damage from the types of dirty fuel these companies produce, according to the Guardian and a paper published in the WIREs Climate Change journal.
What's happening?
Over the last two decades, quite a bit of research has been done on the ways the climate is changing, what is causing that change, and what we can do about it. However, oil and gas companies have sponsored a lot of that.
For instance, BP gave over $2 million to Princeton University between 2012 and 2017, according to the Guardian. The company specifically funded research on ways to reduce reliance on carbon in the economy, and the results downplayed the need to phase out the use of oil and gas, which are key business areas for BP.
The authors of the study wrote, per the Guardian, that "the academic integrity of higher education is at risk." They also wrote: "We find that universities are an established yet under-researched vehicle of climate obstruction by the fossil fuel industry."
Why is the biasing of research by oil and gas companies important?
The United Nations Sustainable Development Group notes that the delegates who met for the 28th annual summit of world leaders about climate change emphasized transitioning away from relying on oil, coal, and natural gas for energy.
However, because of the influence of oil and gas companies on research, we don't know as much as we could about how to do that, according to the Guardian. Even though groups like the International Institute for Sustainable Development believe that we cannot afford any new fossil fuel projects because of how warm the Earth already is, we don't have a strong blueprint for doing anything else, thanks to the lack of research in that area.
Scientists believe this is a major problem. Jennie Stephens, a climate justice professor from Maynooth University in Ireland, said in the Guardian report that this lack of research "provides some explanation for why society has been so ineffective and inadequate in our responses to the climate crisis."
What's being done about lowering our dependence on oil and gas?
Even though we need to reverse the trend of climate research funded by oil and gas companies, people are continuing to lower our dependence on those dirty fuels. Some people are learning to drive more efficiently, while others are starting to rely on electric bikes instead of traditional cars. Some researchers are even developing brand-new fuel sources with a lot of potential.
The situation might be rough in the research world, but everyday people are still doing their part to find clean energy sources that work for them.
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