Today was the first day of Climate Week NYC. Please see below for a statement from Corporate Accountability U.S. Climate Campaign Director Sriram Madhusoodanan.
“For too long, moments like Climate Week have been leveraged by Big Polluters. They try to insert themselves into policymaking and posture themselves as the solution to the crises they continue to fuel. This year, the only difference is that their interference tactics have moved from rooftop soirées to Zoom rooms. Inevitably, this year’s Climate Week — happening amidst a global pandemic, raging wildfires, hurricanes, floods and rising tides — will likely be filled with international corporations making an assortment of pledges and renewed promises that they no longer intend on destroying the planet.
But, people are not buying it. Insufficient PR announcements cannot offset or erase the harm many of these corporations cause, nor can it overwrite the science that renders their net zero pledges meaningless.
Right now, we need real climate action. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground; we need a just transition to 100% renewable energy that’s in the hands of people; we need Global North countries to pay up and do their fair share for driving the climate crisis; we need Big Polluters to stop interfering in climate policy and to be held liable for knowingly fueling this disaster. What we do not need is another Big-Polluter-sponsored week of webinars promoting dangerous, ineffective, inequitable ideas like “net zero” and carbon markets. Climate Week should center real, just solutions and people on the global frontlines of this crisis – not the drivers of it.”
