Articles

Brazil launched its PR offensive for sugarcane ethanol at the UN climate talks in Copenhagen on day two (Tuesday 8 December) with a “dialogue” session on the “contribution of biofuels to climate change mitigation”.

The UN climate talks have become a "must attend" for huge numbers of business lobbyists, each eager to promote their preferred "solution" to tackling climate change – which protects their business interests. Business lobby groups have been preparing for the 2009 Copenhagen UN Climate Summit for years, lobbying national governments to ensure their interests are represented at the negotiating table. This guide lists some of the main lobby groups found at the 2009 Copenhagen UN Climate Summit.

The EU has cultivated an image of being a leader in the fight against climate change at UN climate summits. But as the UN talks in Copenhagen get underway, a closer look at the EU's climate policy reveals fundamental failings. This article looks at how lobbying on the EU's flagship climate policy - the Emissions Trading Scheme has secured the right for dirty industry to carry on polluting for free. The most polluting industries, including chemicals, cement and steel, have secured free permits to pollute for at least the next decade, effectively underming the basis

The EU’s policy on the cultivation and imports of genetically modified crops, flawed as it may be, is continuously under attack from the food, biotech and agribusiness industries. The animal feed industry, large importers of soy, have been taking a leading role in the current battle to speed up the EU authorisation process for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and abolish a crucial piece of EU GMO regulation, which forbids any contamination of food with traces of GM crops that are non-authorised in the EU: a zero-tolerance policy.

One of the remarkable aspects of Barroso’s decisions on the portfolios of the new Commission team is that all 13 current Commissioners that continue in Barroso-II will get a new portfolio. The logic behind these transfers is not always exactly clear and in some cases Barroso’s choices are very worrying. Take the example of Janez Potočnik who after five years as Research Commissioner is now proposed as new Environment Commissioner.

Media reactions to Commission President Barroso’s decisions on the division of portfolios over the 26 candidate Commissioners have concentrated on who got key portfolios, like Michel Barnier getting the internal market job, which includes the politically hot financial services dossier. What seems to have gone unnoticed so far, is the lack of clarity over who will take over political responsibility for the next phase of the European Transparency Initiative.

In the last few weeks, CEO has tried in vain to access the European Parliament's Register of Intergroups. After numerous phone-calls and fruitless email correspondence, we raised the white flag and wrote a complaint letter to the Parliament's Quaestors instead. Our failed search for the register reveals an unacceptable lack of transparency.