require that major oil companies like BP and Exxon research and invest heavily in alternative clean energy solutions.

Because oil companies dominate the world economy's energy market so thoroughly, they're the only ones who can make the change required to get us off of fossil fuels. These companies should be made to research and invest as much as possible in alternative energy solutions.
These companies would argue that it isn't fair for us to force them to lose money like this, that they worked hard for their empire and that it's unreasonable for us to enforce our will on their business. But they've changed the world so thoroughly, have such a chokehold on the very state of the planet, that to restrict them is no longer an option. It must be done in order to preserve and maintain the planet and secure the interests of future technologies.