The
fossil fuel industry has been active in lobbying for delays in global climate
action as they stand to make enormous amounts of money when the process is
stalled.
If
the targets of the Paris Agreement on climate change to reduce emissions are to
be met, the fossil fuel industry will be losing money.
A study on “Revolving doors and the fossil
fuels industry”, presented by the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament
at the Bonn Climate Talks in Bonn this week, is calling for the adoption of a
strong conflict of interest policy that would avoid the disproportionate
influence of the fossil fuel actors on the international climate change
negotiations.
The report gathers studies of revolving doors
between the fossil fuel industry and high level politicians, Ministers, regulators
and advisors, and questions whether the EU and European governments’ lack
appetite to deal with this issue is a result of the cozy relationships built up
with the fossil fuel sector over the years.
According to Max Andersson, Swedish Greens Member
of the European Parliament, the revolving door between politics and the fossil
lobby is a serious cause for alarm.
“If we are to meet the goals of the Paris
Agreement and keep global warming down to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible,
we need to clamp down on conflicts of interest to stop coal, gas and oil from
leaving their dirty fingerprints over our climate policy,” he said.
The demand to tackle conflicts of interest
within the UNFCCC has been raised by governments representing over 70% of the
world’s population and civil society organizations from across the globe and is
supported by the European Parliament.
However, progress has been slow, notably,
because the European Commission had been siding with Canada and the USA to
block discussions on conflict of interest from appearing on the UNFCCC agenda.
The Africa Group of negotiators has stated that
there needs to be restrictions on business participations in the negotiations because
engagement by vested interest “threatens the integrity and legitimacy of the
UNFCCC process” and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Augustine Njamnshi, Chair of Political and
Technical Affairs at the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), says
there is no basis to delay climate action.
“It is in our interest to ensure that those who
come here; those who come to the discussion table are there for real business
to solve this climate crisis because the more we delay, the more endangering
the continent of Africa and other developing countries,” he said.
The report by the Greens/FFA Group concludes
that there is a need to adopt conflicts of interest policies at the UN, EU and
national levels to safeguard public interest policy-making from the disproportionate
influence of vested interest, which is particularly urgent when it comes to
climate negotiations.
“European governments need to support the call
for a common sense conflict of interest policy so that the next COP can deliver
outcome that will put the world on the road towards a climate in balance,” said
Max.
By Kofi Adu Domfeh
No comments:
Post a Comment