Highlights

• Princeton and BP will end their 25-year partnership funding the Carbon Mitigation Initiative in 2025.
• The initiative has advanced research on carbon capture, alternative fuels, and net zero pathways.
• Researchers aim to secure new funding as the university faces broader climate research cutbacks.

Princeton University and BP are ending their 25-year partnership that funded the Carbon Mitigation Initiative (CMI), one of Princeton’s major climate research programmes.

The decision, which will take effect after the current contract expires in 2025, marks the conclusion of one of the university’s most prominent corporate relationships. According to CMI director Stephen Pacala, the programme has made important contributions to understanding climate solutions, but both parties agreed that the world has changed since the initiative first began.

The Carbon Mitigation Initiative, run by the High Meadows Environmental Institute, has focused on areas such as alternative fuels, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), and pathways to net zero emissions.

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It has produced influential research, including studies on how the United States could reach net zero by 2050. Although BP’s financial support is ending, CMI researchers stressed that much of the work will continue with backing from other funding sources.

However, the partnership between Princeton and BP has long been the subject of controversy. Critics argued that BP, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, used the association to influence policy and align academic findings with its own strategy around CCUS, hydrogen, and renewables.

This criticism became sharper after Princeton’s decision in 2022 to divest from fossil fuels. In addition, a 2024 congressional investigation accused BP of using the partnership for advocacy rather than making large-scale investments in climate action.

The end of BP’s sponsorship also comes at a time of shrinking climate research funding across universities.

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The U.S. Department of Commerce recently cut $4 million in Princeton’s climate programmes, citing a lack of alignment with government priorities. As a result, CMI expects some research contracts may not be renewed, though the full impact remains uncertain.

Despite these challenges, the institute plans to find a new sponsor to continue its work on climate research in the long term.

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Source: The Daily Princetonian