Fossil Fuel Engagement in the Climate Project

The MIT Climate Project is a cross-campus initiative launched by President Sally Kornbluth and led by the Vice President for Climate Evelyn Wang to “mount a ‘bold, tenacious response’ to the global threat posed by climate change” with a starting investment by MIT of $50M. However, the Climate Project has yet to commit to rejecting fossil fuel funding.

In the fall of 2024, the interim Vice President for Climate Richard Lester announced the formation of an ad-hoc committee on climate-related industry engagements (CRIE) to provide VP Wang and the Climate Project mission leaders with a recommendation for how to engage with fossil fuel companies. The next spring, MIT Divest wrote and presented a white paper to the committee urging them to support dissociation.

CRIE’s recommendation was originally due August 31, 2025, but the date has been pushed back and is now expected to be finished in the next few weeks. MIT Divest has reached out to VP Wang asking for:

  1. CRIE’s recommendation to be made public

  2. The Climate Project to release an official stance on fossil fuel engagements after receiving CRIE’s recommendation.

VP Wang has not committed to either of these responses.

We must hold VP Wang and the Climate Project accountable for ensuring transparency regarding fossil fuel engagements. Beyond transparency, we must continue to fight for complete dissociation from the fossil fuel industry. An initiative that claims to respond to the threat of climate crisis cannot partner with the perpetrators of the crisis.