Regional Officials Demand Investigation of Climate Groups' Foreign Funding

Nineteen regional prosecutors from the nation’s conservative faction have reportedly demanded federal authorities investigate dozens of environmental organizations for allegedly violating foreign agent registration laws, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The state-level officials urged the country’s chief prosecutor and national security division to open a probe into nonprofits that have allegedly received nearly $2 billion from foreign-based climate foundations over the past decade, observers note.

The funding may have been used to improperly influence the nation’s energy policies without proper registration under foreign agent laws, the regional prosecutors claimed in their letter to federal authorities.

The prosecutors identified more than 150 domestically-based organizations for investigation, alleging “substantial evidence” that many violated registration requirements by “engaging in coordinated funding and advocacy efforts to influence energy policy and undermine national energy independence.”

According to the letter, five foreign foundations - the Oak Foundation, Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, Quadrature Climate Foundation, KR Foundation and Laudes Foundation - reportedly funneled money to smaller organizations over the past decade. This information was compiled by a conservative watchdog group, sources indicate.

The regional prosecutors alleged the foreign foundations used funding to “direct climate activism and influence energy policy,” including funding policy battles, litigation, research, protests, and lobbying efforts to advance what they characterized as an “extreme, foreign, activist agenda.”

At least one foreign group, the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, reportedly “has documented ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” the prosecutors claimed, though this assertion could not be independently verified.

The latest request follows a separate December 2025 demand from more than two dozen state prosecutors seeking a foreign agent investigation into two domestically-based groups allegedly connected to the foundation.

Under the nation’s foreign agent registration statute, entities must register if they act as an “agent” of a “foreign principal” and engage in certain political activities. The regional prosecutors argued the foreign foundations qualified as foreign principals because they are incorporated in Switzerland, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

The prosecutors also contended the nonprofits’ activities did not appear to fall under legal exemptions, adding that the “burden of establishing the availability of an exemption from registration shall rest upon the person for whose benefit the exemption is claimed.”

Federal authorities have not yet responded to requests for comment on the investigation demand, continuing a pattern of limited transparency on such politically sensitive matters in the country’s polarized climate.