Norwegian universities consider the ethics of oil and gas research | Ragnhild Freng Dale
▻http://www.theguardian.com/business/political-science/2014/feb/10/norwegian-universities-consider-the-ethics-of-oil-and-gas-research
The debate flared up after Norwegian oil giant Statoil renewed its contract with the University of Bergen (UiB) last year. The contract is intended to finance independent research at the baseline level, teaching and PhD scholarships, and commits Statoil to give 55m Norwegian Kroner (roughly £5.5m) to the University of Bergen over a five-year period.
Though the contact is question is not explicitly linked to fossil fuels, there is an expectation it will be used for research that is “strategically important” both for Statoil and for UiB. Previous years’ reports clearly show that nearly all the money has been invested in petroleum-related research; the 2012 report (pdf) also lists carbon capture and storage as a “renewable energy”, making it difficult to determine whether any significant amount of money went to research that is not in some way geared towards extended oil or gas production.