Have you heard of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA)? I wouldn’t be surprised if you hadn’t — it is the industry group that the likes of Chevron, Shell, and other Big Polluters don’t want you to know about. And it is working tirelessly to derail meaningful progress on climate change.
In just days, I’ll be heading to the U.N. climate talks in Madrid with a team of organizers and allies. There we’ll go toe to toe with IETA and other industry groups doing the bidding of Big Polluters. This year’s U.N. climate talks is a critical moment when governments will make decisions that will go a long way in determining whether the Paris Agreement helps deliver climate justice or simply continues business as usual.
On the one hand are millions of people like you demanding just solutions to address the climate crisis. On the other are the very corporations and industries that have knowingly fueled this crisis, pushing a misleading and dangerous agenda that pads their profits and worsens the climate crisis.
One of the most prevalent voices doing Big Polluters’ dirty work is IETA. It was founded by and exists to advance the interests of Big Polluters like BP, Shell, and Chevron in climate policymaking. And that’s exactly what it’ll be doing in Madrid. Last year when a Shell executive bragged about how the corporation helped shape the Paris Agreement, they were speaking about their involvement through IETA.
When we show up in Madrid, we’ll challenge this dangerous agenda to advance real solutions to address the climate crisis. But we need to make it crystal clear that Big Polluters and the shills that represent their interests have no place at the climate talks, nor do their dangerous schemes like carbon markets.
That’s where you come in. Take action now and demand that IETA stop pushing dangerous distractions and corporate schemes that would allow corporations to keep polluting, keep profiting, and make the climate crisis worse.
One of the dangerous schemes peddled by corporate interests are carbon markets — basically a “get out of jail free” card for Big Polluters and polluting Global North countries. Not only do carbon markets not work, they also fail to do the most essential thing required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Keeping fossil fuels in the ground. All the while letting corporations continue to pollute and rake in profits.
Right now, we know IETA is preparing to push this scheme hard at the climate talks. That’s why we are organizing with allies from the frontlines of the climate crisis who have been challenging and exposing the dangers of carbon markets for years.
Now is the moment to show that there is a more just and equitable path forward. We can show governments that Big Polluters can and must be made to pay for the devastating impacts of the climate crisis so that we can implement the just solutions the world urgently needs. Solutions like keeping fossil fuels in the ground, transitioning to community-controlled renewable energy systems, and financing climate adaptation projects on the global frontlines of the climate crisis.
But to make progress on these just solutions we need to make it clear: Corporations and industry groups like IETA absolutely cannot have a seat at the table to push their dangerous agenda. By speaking up and demanding our voices be heard we can help clear a path for real, just solutions.
Write to IETA right now and demand they stop pushing dangerous distractions and corporate schemes.
