Carbon captured? Fossil fuel industry links with HE probed

South African universities are being urged to take a far stronger stance against the fossil fuel industry’s influence after the release of a new report, Carbon Captured? A preliminary review of fossil fuel industry influence and greenwashing on SA campuses, produced by Fossil Free South Africa (FFSA).

The report, authored by FFSA co-founder and director David Le Page and climate leadership campaigner Stephanie Cookson, was discussed during an online webinar hosted recently by the Global Environmental Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa.

The discussion explored the growing concerns around fossil fuel industry funding, partnerships and branding at universities, and the implications for academic integrity, climate leadership and South Africa’s Just Energy Transition.

Speaking during the event, Professor Angela van der Berg, the director of the Global Environmental Law Centre at UWC, described the report as “timely and important”.

She underlined that the report “asks difficult but necessary questions about the relationship between universities or higher education, fossil fuel companies and academic integrity with climate leadership in South Africa”.

The report highlights that South African universities are becoming more vulnerable to fossil fuel industry ‘greenwashing’ – whereby companies use partnerships with respected academic institutions to present themselves as environmentally responsible while continuing activities that contribute heavily to climate change.

According to the report, these relationships range from bursaries and research chairs to sponsored laboratories, branded buildings, career fairs and institutional partnerships. The authors argue that such ties can subtly shape research agendas, influence public perception and weaken universities’ ability to act as independent climate leaders.

“Universities are the spaces where the research outlining the scale and severity of climate change is happening,” Cookson said during the webinar.

“And it’s really important for climate action that our universities are free to do that. We also believe that universities must communicate the full risks of climate change to society and that they should offer social leadership instead of giving the wrong tacit signals through maybe partnerships with some of the companies causing the climate crisis.”

Universities must promote meaningful climate action

The report cited how South African universities have long-standing relationships with energy companies such as Sasol, Shell, Total Energies, Exxaro and Petro-SA and further explored the challenges associated with such partnerships.

Examples cited in the report included the University of Cape Town (UCT), where Shell previously endowed the university’s Chair of Environmental Studies and where the Environmental and Geographical Sciences building carried the Shell name for decades. Sasol has also funded research and laboratories at UCT, including the Sasol Advanced Fuels Laboratory linked to research into ‘sustainable liquid fossil gas’.

The report notes the existence, at Stellenbosch University, of a Sasol-National Research Foundation Research Chair in Green Hydrogen and the former Sasol Art Museum. At the University of Pretoria, Exxaro has funded multiple research chairs, while Sasol partnered with the National Research Foundation to support research in energy and power systems modelling.

The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) is also highlighted for partnerships involving BP, Shell and Exxaro. The report further points to Petro-SA partnerships at the University of Johannesburg and UWC, while Sasol-related funding and sponsorships are documented across several institutions, including the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the University of the Free State and the University of South Africa, or UNISA.

Le Page argued during the webinar that the scale of the climate emergency means universities can no longer remain neutral. He added that South Africa is warming at nearly twice the global average and warned that climate damage is accelerating.

“For a long time, climate damage accumulates slowly,” Le Page said. “But then, suddenly, you start to hit tipping points and there’s an accelerating effect of damage. And that’s the great danger that we’re running into.”

A central argument of the report is that fossil fuel partnerships often function as a form of reputation laundering rather than meaningful climate action. The report notes that many fossil fuel companies heavily publicise relatively small sustainability or renewable energy projects while continuing to invest overwhelmingly in fossil fuel extraction and lobby against climate policy reforms.

An impact on academic independence

Cookson said international research inspired FFSA’s investigation into South African universities.

“The industry partners strategically with universities to lend an aura of credibility to deception campaigns,” she said, referring to international studies cited in the report.

“These companies establish these partnerships with institutions to enhance credibility, shape research programmes and to provide studies supportive of a prolonged life for oil and gas, leverage the resulting research to their advantage, [and] bolster access to policymakers.”

She added that the lack of transparency around university partnerships remains a major concern.

The report also draws parallels between fossil fuel industry tactics and those previously used by the tobacco industry, particularly the funding of research intended to delay regulation and shape public opinion.

One of the key concerns raised is the impact on academic independence and the possibility that researchers may become less willing to critique companies funding their work.

The study posits that fossil fuel branding on campuses, sponsored career pathways and institutional partnerships create a “choice architecture” that subtly normalises industry influence.

Cookson noted that universities occupy an especially important position because they shape both research and public understanding.

“The fight against climate change is actually the fight against the fossil fuel industry, we know that this is the most powerful industry lobby in the world … and we have to ask how these patterns are operating in South Africa,” she said.

Universities defend academic freedom

Responding to questions about funding relationships with the fossil fuel industry, Dr Britta Rennkamp, a senior researcher at the African Climate and Development Initiative at UCT, highlighted that partnerships should be judged on how they contribute to societal change rather than by association alone.

“I think working with fossil fuel companies, per se, is not problematic; the question is how we work with them. It depends on our and their theory of change and whether there is common ground – if we can work with Sasol to develop innovative, sustainable cooking and aviation fuels, why not?”

Rennkamp stressed that universities must retain control over their research agendas and also added that reports examining university-industry relationships can play an important role in encouraging accountability.

“Should we let funders determine what we do in a public university? No, because we need to protect our academic freedom. We can work together where it leads to change, but not to sustain carbon lock in … It is good to see these kinds of reports that remind us to do better,” she stated.

At Stellenbosch University (SU), Tertia Kruger, the director of communication, said the institution’s research priorities are determined independently of funders and are protected through formal governance structures and ethics policies.

“SU regards academic freedom and the independence of its research as core principles that are not open to compromise,” she said.

Kruger said the university’s priorities are “driven by strategy and societal need – not by funders”.

“Researchers determine their own research questions, methods and conclusions. Funders do not direct findings or control whether and how results are published, and research outputs are subject to independent peer review,” she underscored.

At Wits, Professor Imraan Valodia, the pro vice-chancellor for climate change, sustainability and inequality, argued that the report’s conclusions oversimplify both the climate transition and the role of universities.

He emphasised that achieving net-zero emissions requires engagement with existing energy companies as part of a transition process.

“It is my view that the report by Fossil Free SA and its associated campaign fundamentally misunderstands the nature of the climate transition and the role of universities ... If we view this as a process, it means that universities work with companies like Sasol to make the transition to renewables.”

He also defended the principle of academic freedom and researchers’ ability to pursue independent scientific inquiry.

“Our constitution guarantees academic freedom to pursue scientific research. One of the initiatives that have been introduced at Wits is that all of our students take a compulsory introductory course on climate change – so, all of our graduates have a keen and critical appreciation of the evidence of climate change and the imperatives for a just transition,” Valodia said.

Ethical investment frameworks, rules needed

The webinar also explored how universities elsewhere in the world have responded. The report references institutions such as Stanford University and Yale University in the United States, which introduced ethical investment frameworks and stricter rules around fossil fuel funding.

Nearly 300 educational institutions globally have already divested from fossil fuels, according to the report. Le Page added that South African universities should see themselves as ethical leaders during a global climate crisis.

Cookson stressed that universities should not underestimate their influence in shaping public attitudes.

“South African universities need to build climate leadership and challenge the social licence for fossil fuels in order to support this human rights-based just transition and energy democracy,” she said.

The report’s recommendations include creating transparent public registries of fossil fuel industry funding and university partnerships, establishing ethical review mechanisms for research funding, endorsing the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, and strengthening institutional commitments to fossil fuel divestment.

“Universities are sites of research, knowledge production, and they should also be sites of ethical leadership and public influence,” Van der Berg emphasised during the webinar.

“This report challenges us to think about whether our institutions are really aligned with the scientific realities of climate change and the values that we publicly declare to uphold.”