KR Foundation Newsletter
9 October 2023

Welcome to a new edition of KR Foundation’s newsletter

Our second board meeting of the year has just concluded with a total of 9 projects approved for funding - we have highlighted a few of them below. Besides making grants to a range of impactful projects, we also had the pleasure of welcoming two new members of KR Foundation’s board of directors: Per Espen Stoknes and Maja Göpel.
 
 For more frequent updates and to stay tuned about events at Læderstræde 20, please follow us on LinkedIn.

 

Fossil fuel companies spend millions of dollars each year on PR firms that help improve their image in the eyes of decision makers and the public. The PR firms do not just help oil executives get favorable press, they also help the companies to reach influential politicians and journalists, and aide them in engaging certain voting demographics, filmmakers and artists. For instance, it has been well documented that PR firms are working with TikTok influencers to promote the fossil fuel industry to younger audiences, and that they are crafting curricula for schools that soft-peddles fossil fuel dependency. These activities are largely kept hidden and are rarely reported on by the press.

Drilled is an international collaborative of investigative journalists focusing on climate accountability. With support from KR Foundation, they will launch a series of investigative reporting projects focused on the PR industry’s work to influence the media on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. Drilled is headed by journalist Amy Westervelt, who has more than two decades of experience with climate accountability and has won several awards. In addition to producing their own audio and print stories, Drilled will work with various partners to increase media coverage about the PR industry’s influence and create educational materials that can help other journalists spot and deflect key PR tactics.
 

As part of a wider campaign to delay climate policy, fossil fuel interests have strategically used their funding relationships with universities around the world to undermine academia’s ability to help address the climate crisis. For example, it has been documented that Exxon, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute, in 1998, developed a strategy to leverage academia to halt ambitious climate action. A strategy that included building “cooperative relationships with all major scientists whose research in this field supports our position”, while actively using PR firms to discredit scientists who were vocal about the dangers of climate change. More recently, a U.S. House Oversight Committee investigation uncovered a BP executive in 2019 describing the company’s relationships with universities such as Harvard, Princeton, Tufts, and Columbia as “key parts of [BP’s] long-term relationship-building and outreach to policymakers and influencers in the US and globally."
 
Two organizations have joined forces to raise awareness and mobilize action on this issue: Climate Accountability Lab at the University of Miami has a long track record of investigating climate change disinformation by fossil fuel interests, and in this project they will research the scale and influence of fossil fuel-university partnerships worldwide and investigate the role of fossil fuel funding of academia in obstructing climate action. This work will be supplemented by Fossil Free Research – an organization supporting students and faculty working to expose and dismantle fossil fuel industry influence on higher education. Fossil Free Research will be working with student groups across the globe and  provide trainings to advocacy groups  campaigning to get academic institutions to address this issue.
 

Since late 2015, the six largest US banks have provided USD 1.4 trillion to the fossil fuel industry―nearly one-third of global commercial bank financing for fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement―making global climate goals much harder to achieve. However, there have been many climate positive developments in the financial sector since the Paris Agreement was signed, but now an “anti-ESG” sentiment has emerged in the US, prompting politicians to attack climate action in the financial sector and introduce more than 165 “anti-ESG” bills in 37 states. This has caused many financial institutions to backpedal on their climate ambitions. For instance, BlackRock―the world’s largest asset manager with nearly USD 10 trillion under management―has backtracked on its climate commitments, and major American banks are even bragging about their commitment to fossil fuel investment.
 
The Stop the Money Pipeline (STMP) coalition is working to halt and reverse this development. STMP is a coalition of more than 230 civil society organizations aiming to push banks, insurance companies, and investors to stop providing financial services that enable fossil fuel expansion. STMP has a multi-pronged strategy focusing on 1) pushing for financial regulation, 2) campaigning selected banks, and 3) bank employee education and mobilization.

The youth branches of political parties play a crucial role in Denmark's political landscape, serving as vibrant and influential entities that contribute to the nation's democratic processes and societal development. These youth organizations provide a platform for young people to engage in politics, voice their concerns, and actively participate in shaping the country's future. While many special interest groups often engage with these bourgeoning political thought-leaders, the climate movement has so far been not been heavily engaged with these groups.
 
The Green Youth Academy (Grønt Ungdomsakademi) is a newly created organization aiming to create a platform for engaging upcoming policy-makers, driven by a strong partnership between Danmarks Naturfredningsforening, Dyrenes Beskyttelse, and Rådet for Grøn Omstilling (RGO). The Green Youth Academy will be conducting a range of workshops, seminars and events to engage the youth branches on climate change issues.

Maja Göpel is a political economist, transformation researcher, and sustainability scientist with a focus on combining research and practice. In 2016, she published her book “The Great Mindshift: How a New Economic Paradigm and Sustainability Transformations Go Hand in Hand” that summarises research on systematic transformations of political economy and change management. Göpel is a member of the International Club of Rome and the World Future Council. She is also among the Initiators of Scientists4Future initiative in Germany.

Per Esben Stoknes is Director of Centre for Sustainability and Energy at the Norwegian Business School. Per Espen is a psychologist with PhD in economics and a TED Global speaker. He is an experienced foresight facilitator and academic, and the co-founder of the clean-tech company GasPlas. He is the author of several books, among them Money & Soul (2009), the award-winning book What We Think About When We Try Not To Think About Global Warming (2015), Tomorrow’s Economy (2021) and Earth For All (2022) with the Club of Rome. Per Espen has served as member of Norwegian Parliament, and on the EU Commission’s mission board on Horizon Europe’s Climate Change and Societal Adaptation.