Fossil free politics

The European Commission said it wants to avoid giving billions in bailouts to the fossil fuel industry like it did in 2008 - but it’s doing just that: In Italy, France, Portugal and the Spanish State, €8.3 billion of EU recovery funds will be spent on hydrogen and renewable gases, thanks to fierce industry lobbying at national and EU level.

Recently more than 1,500 corporations, including big polluters, have made “net zero” commitments. Are their pledges backed by plans for real action or are they a strategy for evading responsibility and continue business as usual? Find out more in this report by Corporate Accountability International, Global Forest Coalition and Friends of the Earth International, in collaboration with CEO and other groups.

Sixty four civil society organisations from Portugal and across the EU have today demanded action to tackle corporate influence and to promote lobby transparency, accountability, and democratic reform.

Fossil fuel interests have captured tens of billions of COVID-19 public recovery funds. New research by the Fossil Free Politics campaign reveals a massive lobbying effort by the fossil fuel industry to win concessions for climate-damaging energy schemes, to weaken environmental standards across Europe, and to water-down the EU Green Deal.

The European Green Deal (EGD) is a major new plan for the EU that seeks to make its economy 'climate-neutral'. Is the deal really as good as they want us to believe? The fingerprints of industry, and in particular the fossil fuel industry, can be seen all over the EGD. Emissions reductions targets are too modest and too slow, fossil gas is kept as a transitional fuel, and public money will finance industry ‘false solutions’. How did this happen?

Council presidency sponsorship, high-profile events, new fossil fuel investments…. Corporate Europe Observatory turns a quizzical eye on the Croatian Government’s love affair with the fossil fuel industry.

CEO spent a very busy two weeks at COP25 in Madrid in December, working with inspiring allies in the fight for climate justice and exposing the role of corporations in co-opting the UN climate talks and derailing the process.

Some of Spain's biggest polluters are bankrolling COP25 in Madrid. See our new infographic and fact-file for more information.

For decades, fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists have denied science, and have delayed, weakened, and sabotaged climate action. They made billions in profits, while heating the planet and destroying communities. This stops now.

Since 2010, just five oil and gas corporations and their fossil fuel lobby groups have spent at least a quarter of a billion euros buying influence at the heart of European decision-making.

189 organisations have joined CEO, Food and Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace EU in signing an open letter to decision makers demanding the fossil fuel industry is cut out of politics.

Despite strong calls from MEPs and the public, ExxonMobil and its lobby groups mobilise enough behind-the-scenes pressure to stop the European Parliament taking away its lobby badges