Articles

The climate summit is set to address 'finance flows' to protect us from climate change. But the proposals are developed by the financial industry and full of loopholes. And not only that: big financiers of big polluters, such as BlackRock, Bank of America and Citigroup, will take charge of implementation.

On the road to COP26, corporations are using “net zero” to block effective climate policy and greenwash their image while maintaining business-as-usual. This fact file details the “net zero” conning and COP26 greenwashing of six major corporate players, but they’re not alone.

New research by Fossil Free Politics members CEO, FoEE and FWAE explores 70+ revolving doors cases between six of Europe's big oil and gas companies (BP, Shell, Total, ENI, Equinor, Galp and five of their lobby groups) and the public sector between 2015 (COP21) and 2021 (COP26). These revolving door cases demonstrate just how normalised the fossil fuel industry model, it’s assumptions, power, and culture are.

In this new episode of EU Watchdog Radio, we take a closer look at the European Green Deal (EGD) and in particular how it is being financed. Counter Balance released their latest report on October 20, 2021. In “The European Green Deal: Reclaiming Public Investments for a real Socio-ecological Transformation” Counter Balance shows that the financial basis of the EGD is undersized and wobbly at best.

The EU Green Deal includes bold promises to vastly reduce the use of toxic pesticides. But big pesticide corporations like Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva are lobbying hard to counter these initiatives. They also want to continue producing and exporting pesticides that are banned in Europe to other countries. This video tells the story of toxic pesticides, international trade and these EU Green Deal promises.

Leaked internal lobby documents from Copa-Cogeca reveal a coordinated attack by industrial agri-food lobbies on the EU’s sustainable food (Farm to Fork) strategy. The lobby strategy aims to create an echo chamber of anti-Farm to Fork messages using partial findings from a series of ‘impact studies’, many of which funded by the industry itself.

In January France will take over the Presidency of the EU Council for six months. But the early signs are worrying that this will be a pro-corporate presidency which prioritises a handful of corporate ‘champions’, and an ever greater role for big business in policy-making.

Tomorrow EU and US counterparts will sit down together for the first meeting of the EU-US Trade and Technology Council (TTC). This is a new transatlantic 'regulatory cooperation' effort with a special focus on the tech sector. Much is at stake in these discussions: from regulating tech giants to standards for artificial intelligence. Corporate lobbyists are keen to get a new industry-driven tool.

Europe already has more than enough gas infrastructure, and to avoid wrecking the climate we need to make massive cuts in gas usage. A joint investigation by Global Witness and Corporate Europe Observatory shows that the leading MEP for the review of TEN-E, the EU’s rules governing billions of euros in energy subsidies, has tabled amendments that mirror gas industry demands and are now close to being adopted by the whole Parliament