Press Releases
Aggressive free market approach disastrous for development, demo warns
Brussels: Campaigners warned today that the European Union’s free market trade policies are savaging poor people and the environment in developing countries staging an action outside a DG Trade conference in Brussels where senior EU figures were discussing the issue of trade with developing countries [1].
Oil giant Shell took second place (18%) in the Award for lobbying to sabotage effective action on climate change, followed by the American Petroleum Institute (14%).
Ten thousand people voted in the Angry Mermaid Award, named after the iconic Copenhagen mermaid who is angry about corporate lobbying on climate change.
Brussels/Copenhagen, 9 December - Business lobbyists have been pushing governments to reject tough targets on carbon emissions cuts, according to a new lobbying guide published today by Corporate Europe Observatory [1].
Making money out of climate change is a four-page guide to some of the business lobby groups active in Copenhagen. It highlights how the UN climate negotiations have become a major target for business groups, keen to see their preferred “solutions” - such as nuclear power, a global emissions market and carbon capture and storage - included on the agenda.
Copenhagen / Brussels, Monday 16 November - The damaging impacts of corporate lobbying on international efforts to fight climate change are exposed today with the announcement of the eight candidates for the Angry Mermaid Award 2009.
The Angry Mermaid Award is named after the iconic Copenhagen mermaid who is angry about the destruction being caused by climate change
Business attempts to undermine a strong and just global agreement on climate change are being put under the spotlight in the countdown to United Nations negotiations in Copenhagen with a special award, jointly organised by Corporate Europe Observatory, Friends of the Earth International, Focus on the Global South, Attac and Spinwatch.
As the European Commission prepares to review its voluntary lobby register one year after its official launch in 2008, the Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) has published a detailed report highlighting the failures of the register and putting forward concrete proposals for improvement.
The revelations come as the tobacco industry fights to retain its influence within the EU after a World Health Organisation agreement on preventing the influence of vested interests from the tobacco industry in policy making [2].
The report, which is launched as the European Commission hosts a conference on research in Brussels [2], says that the approval of so-many controversial projects is not surprising, given that many of the companies were also involved in writing the EU’s Strategic Research Agenda, which sets the priorities for new research.
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Corporate Europe Observatory
Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) is a research and campaign group working to expose and challenge the privileged access and influence enjoyed by corporations and their lobby groups in EU policy making.
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