Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 4)

Barroso administration: Golden medal in serving interests

A research by the Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO)

“Through the course of the crisis, attempts by corporations and corporate lobby groups to influence EU policies have probably been more successful than ever, in part due to a close relationship with the Commission.”

“Corporate Europe Observatory has gathered a lot of evidence over time and covering many different areas that shows how the Commission is easily captured by corporate interests. This report is an attempt to produce a condensed version of how the Commission has come to act on behalf of corporations over the past five years, focusing on climate policies, agriculture and food, finance, economic, and fiscal policies.”

4 - The climate climbdown

Key findings

“... the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was touted as the cheapest way for Europe to reduce its emissions [...] However, intense industry lobbying meant too many permits were given out so companies keep polluting rather than investing in low-carbon technology. Under the EU ETS emissions have actually increased, along with the use of fossil fuels, but meanwhile Europe’s dirtiest industries have made billions of euros profits from the many flaws in the ETS system, as well as outright fraud.”

“In spite of its failure, the Barroso II Commission – and Commissioner Hedegaard of DG CLIMA – has refused to consider life beyond the ETS. Industry lobby groups such as the ‘Friends of ETS’ – established by Shell and other big energy companies – have kept the Commission wasting its political capital on the ETS rather than genuine solutions. Business Europe teamed up with carbon traders’ lobby IETA – with members like BP, Shell and JP Morgan – to scare the Commission into believing that if it introduced structural reforms to the ETS, they would affect the level of trading and undermine the whole scheme (regardless of whether trading had any relation to emissions cuts). As a result, carbon trading remains largely an activity based on speculation rather than real emissions cuts.”

“Aggressive lobbying from the biggest climate laggards such as steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal and its numerous trade associations have blocked any attempt to make the ETS more effective. They have effectively wielded the threat of relocating outside of Europe if the Commission makes it pay for emissions cuts, despite the fact that in 2012 ArcelorMittal still held more than €1.6 billion worth of free carbon permits. The message was echoed by trade associations for steel (Eurofer – which ArcelorMittal chairs), metals (Eurometaux) and chemicals (CEFIS), as well as cross-sector associations like BusinessEurope. Heavy industry even went as far as demanding – and receiving – compensation through subsidised electricity prices.”

“Despite the failure of the ETS, the European Commission is focused on the same strategy of financialisation – assigning a market value to ecosystems and their ‘services’ – as a solution to biodiversity loss and other environmental problems. At the Rio+20 Sustainable Development Conference in 2012, the Commission was one of the key cheerleaders of this approach, embracing the message from the world’s biggest corporations like Rio Tinto and Shell that creating markets would protect the environment and stimulate growth – despite current evidence that environmental markets, by putting a price on forests, rivers, and ecosystems, lead to the privatisation of the commons, high levels of speculation, and very little additional environmental action.”

“Support for renewable energy and energy efficiency has been cut. One of the more absurd and sinister reasons given was that if they were successful in cutting emissions, they would reduce the demand – and therefore the price – for carbon credits, further weakening the ETS.”

“ERT [European Round Table of Industrialists] has similarly high-level access, inviting German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President François Hollande and Commission President José Manuel Barroso to dinner with its delegation to discuss climate policies in March 2014.”

http://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/record_captive_commission.pdf

Related:

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 1)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 2)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 3)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 5)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 6)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 7)

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 8) 

Totally dominant lobbies in a downgraded Europe – (part 9)

Juncker-Verhofstadt: Lobbies and groups of interests in the EU are unavoidable!