A new investigation from ProPublica and Drilled reveals how BP helped shape the influential 2004 'Wedges' climate paper from Princeton University. The paper made climate action seem achievable without abandoning oil and gas, promoting carbon capture and natural gas as key solutions. BP donated $15 million to Princeton's Carbon Mitigation Initiative and exchanged drafts with the authors, even suggesting title wording and rewriting sections. The paper became a cornerstone of climate education and policy, cited over 3,000 times and used by presidents from Bush to Biden. Critics argue it oversold carbon capture readiness and crowded out more transformative solutions like rapid renewables deployment. The investigation raises hard questions about corporate influence on climate science and whether industry-friendly solutions delayed real decarbonization.
