This week, delegates from nearly 200 countries have gathered in Lima, Peru, to hash out details of the climate treaty that will determine the future of our planet. But, as in years past, Big Energy is intentionally derailing progress, confusing the facts and posing half-measure “solutions” designed to keep corporate profits booming at the expense of meaningful progress to combat climate change.
But there’s hope. Because kicking the fossil fuel industry out of the climate negotiations has become a central theme at the twentieth Conference of the Parties.
Days ago, a large crowd protested a Dirty Energy side event hosted by industry giants including Chevron at which Shell was a panelist. The protest — “Get the Fossil Fuels Out” — effectively interrupted the meeting and was highlighted on Democracy Now! As described in the article on Common Dreams, the rally was filled with activists from indigenous communities in Colombia, Peru, Canada, and other communities who spoke about the environmental and human rights violations perpetrated by the fossil fuel giants.
Godwin Ojo, director of Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria and our close ally, spoke about the devastation Shell has wreaked on people in the Niger Delta. Pascoe Sabido of Corporate Europe Observatory stated it plainly: “We’d be outraged if we thought the tobacco industry was dictating our government’s policy on public health, but that’s exactly what’s happening with climate policy.”
Last week, our managing director Patti Lynn wrote a blog post about this very corporate interference in our climate policy — and how to put a stop to it — published on advisory board member and investigative journalist Naomi Klein’s “This Changes Everything” website. In her new book (of the same name) on the climate crisis, Klein makes an urgent and compelling call to rein in corporate power and reclaim democracy. We are excited about this opportunity to join her in this call.
Our blog, “Rescuing the climate talks from corporate capture: a roadmap” is an in-depth examination of how the historic precedent of the global tobacco treaty — which we helped secure in partnership with members and allies around the world — can be applied to the climate talks. It raises awareness of the global tobacco treaty’s legendary Article 5.3: a powerful international legal measure that provides a roadmap for kicking Big Energy out of the U.N. climate treaty talks.
READ MORE: Check out the blog post and please share it widely with your friends and networks. http://thischangeseverything.org/rescuing-the-climate-talks-from-corporate-capture-a-roadmap/
Photo by: Orin Langelle
