Fossil fuel companie s have long known about the dire impacts of their operations, and yet they have continued to expand extraction and spread climate disinfor mation. World governments have been negotiating to limit the worst im pacts of global heating for 30 years. And the general public is well aware of the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet, des pite empty talk about an "energy transition", the world has never bur ned as much coal, oil and gas as in 2025. The climate question is not defined by evidence and rational argumentation, but by relationships of power. To protect its power from rising anti-fossil fuel sen timent, the fossil fuel industry has been scrambling to deepen its in stitutional capture of reputable academic, cultural and sports instit utions. Through sponsorships, secondments, and collaborations, they h ave undertaken a public relations operation to portray themselves as "part of the solution" to the climate crisis. This narrative allows t hem to remain a legitimate political actor, continue exerting influen ce on public debate and policymaking, and delay legislative, politica l, cultural and social transformations to phase out fossil fuels.
In this roundtable, academics, investigative journalists and action-oriented researchers discuss their different roles and how the y can work together effectively to:
Join us in person at the Gree n Office to discuss how we can liberate our public institutions to se rve the common good rather than private extractive interests. This ev ent is open to everyone interested, please register through the link above.
This round table is organised by the Amsterdam Sustainab ility Institute in collaboration with Climate Obstruction NL. Right a fter this event, the SDG Academy on the EJAtlas follows. More informa tion and registration here.
DESCRIPTION: Fossil fuel companies have long known about the dire impa cts of their operations, and yet they have continued to expand extrac tion and spread climate disinformation. World governments have been n egotiating to limit the worst impacts of global heating for 30 years. And the general public is well aware of the impacts of greenhouse ga s emissions. Yet, despite empty talk about an "energy transition", th e world has never burned as much coal, oil and gas as in 2025. The cl imate question is not defined by evidence and rational argumentation, but by relationships of power. To protect its power from rising anti-fossil fuel sentiment, the fossil fuel industry has been scramb ling to deepen its institutional capture of reputable academic, cultu ral and sports institutions. Through sponsorships, secondments, and c ollaborations, they have undertaken a public relations operation to p ortray themselves as "part of the solution" to the climate crisis. Th is narrative allows them to remain a legitimate political actor, cont inue exerting influence on public debate and policymaking, and delay legislative, political, cultural and social transformations to phase out fossil fuels.In this roundtable, academics, investigative jo urnalists and action-oriented researchers discuss their different rol es and how they can work together effectively to: