Should universities take polluters’ money for climate research?

These are the key points: Major companies “often don’t need universities to do their research. What they need most is to be legitimised by an agreement with a public university,” he said. “These companies need to keep and strengthen ‘social licence’ to operate.” Professor Grasso said agreements between universities and fossil fuel companies typically follow a “clear pattern”, with research often favouring “rather utopian projects” like nuclear fusion over existing renewable technologies that could pose immediate competition to fossil fuels.

Isn't this all about money. Isn't most of what the majority of Universities do all about money. Isn't this reflected by the VC getting around $1,000,000 plus a year whilst Lecturers get something like $130,000 and tutors are on poorly paid zero-hours contracts? And then people claim high standings in research. The reality is that most Universities don't even rank in the top 100. An academic career is largely determined by his/her h-index. This only indicates how many people read/quote a paper. It bears no resemblance to if their work is actually picked up and used in real life. As I said, isn't this all about money. Isn't the problem of climate change bigger than this parochial view.