FY 2021
Climate
You demand accountability of Big Polluters
An Exxon lobbyist, caught on tape, said it himself: The corporation does what it needs to in order to protect its investments and shareholders—and killing effective climate policy is top on its list. This year, we saw major shifts in the way people around the world and in the U.S. are responding to the climate crisis. People are demanding Big Polluters be held accountable for how they have knowingly fueled this catastrophe, and you have helped make this shift possible. Seizing this momentum, we collectively advanced exciting developments with the work to make Big Polluters pay and to expose the con behind “net zero” schemes of transnational corporations like Shell.
Your take:
“I believe that transformational change is possible—but it needs to be guided by a deep commitment to justice and equity. Beyond checking corporate power, Corporate Accountability’s campaigns seek to restore justice to the people and communities that have been most impacted by corporate abuse. This is why I proudly support their climate campaign—and why the call to kick Big Polluters out and make them pay is so powerful.”
CYNTHIA BEARD, MUSICOLOGIST AND EDITOR
“The communities on the front lines of the climate crisis face multiple inter-related injustices—from health disparities to economic injustice—and women often bear the biggest brunt. In this urgent moment, we must challenge the many ways Big Polluters operate with impunity to escape accountability, like continuing to push dirty and harmful energy and “net zero” schemes, and we must advance real solutions to this crisis. Together with Corporate Accountability and a dozen other organizations, we developed tools like the Liability Roadmap to demand that polluters be held liable. We shall keep fighting for justice.”
DIPTI BHATNAGAR, INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM COORDINATOR FOR CLIMATE JUSTICE AND ENERGY, FRIENDS OF THE EARTH INTERNATIONAL
The call to Make Big Polluters Pay resounds around the world
What a year for holding Big Polluters accountable! Organizers, public officials, journalists, activist shareholders and others took action by filing lawsuits, divesting from the industry, exposing industry interference in climate policy, and much more. When we talk about many small victories and steps culminating in a sudden groundswell of change—this is what that looks like. And it’s the decades-long work of the climate justice movement led by people across the Global South and communities of color that has made this moment possible.
This year, Corporate Accountability and our allies launched an exciting new tool to build on this momentum of accountability. The Liability Roadmap was developed in deep collaboration with more than a dozen allies over a period of 8 months throughout the pandemic and other crises. This tool, grounded in the experience and expertise of communities on the front lines of climate change, enables coordinated action to hold Big Polluters liable for their role in fueling the climate crisis. It provides guidance to decision-makers, public officials, and organizers on how to take specific action to make Big Polluters pay.
We and our allies launched the roadmap across almost all continents, with virtual events and actions all over the world. To date, people from more than 100 countries have accessed the roadmap, and the demand to make Big Polluters pay is resounding around the world.
In African countries like Ghana, organizers are engaging with local and national officials on how they can use the Liability Roadmap. In the U.S., Corporate Accountability members in places like Wisconsin and California are actively organizing local campaigns to move public officials to hold the fossil fuel industry liable. And across Latin America, our organizers are using the roadmap as a way to build relationships and connect with justice organizations, collectives, and movements, laying the groundwork to make Big Polluters pay.
Together, we are all shifting the ground under Big Polluters, creating the necessary change for a world where all people and beings can thrive.
More impact:
We jointly published “The Big Con,” a powerful report that demonstrates how the math of Big Polluters’ “net zero” plans does not add up and charts the ways Big Polluters have deliberately positioned “net zero” as a screen to keep extracting, exploiting, and polluting. This exposé has made waves around the world. Watch a clip from a panel discussion we hosted about it, timed with London Climate Action week.
At the U.N. climate treaty talks, Corporate Accountability and our allies organized both “inside” and “outside” the virtual halls of these informal negotiations. Together and with your support, we ensured that climate justice and real solutions were not left out of the discussions as they otherwise would have been. Nathalie Rengifo, Latin America Climate Campaign Director, made a powerful intervention on behalf of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice during the June virtual discussions of the treaty.
Explore more:
You help protect the human right to water
While water privatizers sought to exploit the pandemic to increase profits, the water justice movement rose up to oppose and check them. Here is just a taste of what you made possible.
You help expose Big Tobacco’s underhanded and racist tactics, bring global leaders together
Our longest-running campaign continues to advance innovative corporate accountability strategies.
You stand up to Big Food and Big Soda
We challenged corporations for influencing public health policy, fueling racial injustices, and marketing unhealthy products.
