{"id":6176,"date":"2017-09-16T10:31:56","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T17:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=6176"},"modified":"2017-09-16T10:31:56","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T17:31:56","slug":"corporations-biggest-influence-climate-policy-lorraine-chow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2017\/09\/16\/corporations-biggest-influence-climate-policy-lorraine-chow\/","title":{"rendered":"“THESE CORPORATIONS HAVE THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON CLIMATE POLICY” by Lorraine Chow"},"content":{"rendered":"
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THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON\u00a0ECOWATCH<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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September 15, 2017 (Occupy.com)<\/p>\n

For better or worse, corporations have a major influence on\u00a0climate change<\/a>\u00a0policy. Just look at\u00a0Koch<\/a>\u00a0Industries, a multinational conglomerate owned by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch that has\u00a0contributed<\/a>hundreds of millions to federal candidates and lobbying over the last 25 years.<\/p>\n

The “Corporate Carbon Policy Footprint,” a new analysis from U.K. nonprofit\u00a0InfluenceMap<\/a>, now ranks Koch Industries as the company with the strongest opposition to the\u00a0Paris climate agreement<\/a>\u00a0and most intensely lobbies against policies in line with the landmark global accord.<\/p>\n

The InfluenceMap\u00a0scoring system<\/a>\u00a0does not measure a company’s actual greenhouse gas emissions. Rather, it measures “the extent to which a corporation is supporting or obstructing the climate policy process.”<\/p>\n

For the InfluenceMap report, researchers analyzed more than “30,000 pieces of evidence<\/a>” on 250 global companies and 50 major trade associations on their lobbying records, advertising, public relations and sponsored research, according to\u00a0Bloomberg<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The research group gave the Wichita-based company\u00a0an “F” grade<\/a>\u00a0for its anti-climate actions:<\/p>\n

“Koch Industries appears to be actively opposing almost all areas of climate legislation. In 2014 in the US, they were\u00a0reportedly active<\/a>\u00a0in their opposition to a carbon tax, funding\u00a0politicians<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0campaigns<\/a>\u00a0to oppose the tax. Similarly, in 2014 they appear to have opposed the U.S. EPA Clean Power Plan in\u00a0consultation<\/a>\u00a0and through\u00a0direct engagement with policy makers<\/a>, and boasted about\u00a0their success<\/a>\u00a0in blocking the US Cap and Trade Scheme in 2010. Additionally, they appear to be opposing measures to transition to a low carbon economy, advocating against\u00a0renewable energy subsidies<\/a>, and funding groups that have opposed\u00a0energy efficiency standards<\/a>, the\u00a0repeal of fossil fuel subsidies<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0the need for action on climate change<\/a>. They seem to be\u00a0exceptionally active in opposing renewable energy standards<\/a>\u00a0across the U.S. Both\u00a0the organization<\/a>\u00a0and its CEO,\u00a0Charles Koch<\/a>, appear to have questioned climate change science, and have reportedly\u00a0funded climate denial<\/a>. Senior executives are active in both the\u00a0National Association of Manufacturers<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0ALEC<\/a>, which also appear to be resisting climate change related regulations and policies.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Silicon Valley tech giant Apple was ranked highest on the list and has an A+ for its support of climate change action and its positive engagement with a number of climate change policy areas.<\/p>\n

Here are the report’s key findings:<\/p>\n

\u2022 35 of the 50 most influential are actively lobbying against climate policy. They include companies in the fossil fuel value chain (ExxonMobil, Valero Energy, Chevron), energy intensive companies (BASF, ArcelorMittal, Bayer, Dow Chemical and Solvay) and electric utilities with large amounts of coal generating capacity (Southern Company, Duke Energy and American Electric Power).<\/p>\n

\u2022 Also in this group of 35 influential companies holding back climate policy are four powerful automotive manufacturers (Fiat Chrysler, Ford, BMW and Daimler). The research found the companies lobbying to delay or dilute efficiency and CO2 emissions standards and procedures both in Europe and North America. Depending on region, passenger vehicle emissions account for 12% or more of all greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

\u2022 On the other side, 15 of the 50 most influential are pushing for an ambitious climate policy agenda, favoring renewable power and electric vehicles. They include signatories to the RE100 initiative committing to buying 100% renewable power (Apple, Ikea, Unilever, Coca Cola and Nestle) as well as power sector companies (SSE, Enel, EDF, Iberdrola and National Grid) who are shifting their business models towards low carbon electricity generation.<\/p>\n

“The data shows the climate policy agenda, in terms of corporate influencing, is being driven by a small number of massive global corporations,” Dylan Tanner, InfluenceMap executive director, said in a statement. “It also shows a group of powerful of companies in the tech, consumer goods and utilities sectors increasingly pushing for policy to implement the Paris Agreement.”<\/p>\n

InfluenceMap also ranked “influencers<\/a>” or powerful trade associations that actively lobby against climate policies. A number of trade associations received an “F” grade, but here are the bottom five: U.S. Chamber of Commerce; American Petroleum Institute; American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity; National Mining Association; and the American Legislative Exchange Council.<\/p>\n

Check out the\u00a0full list here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Originally published by EcoWatch<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON\u00a0ECOWATCH September 15, 2017 (Occupy.com) For better or worse, corporations have a major influence on\u00a0climate change\u00a0policy. Just look at\u00a0Koch\u00a0Industries, a multinational conglomerate owned by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch that has\u00a0contributedhundreds of millions to federal candidates and lobbying over the last 25 years. The “Corporate… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6177,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6176\/revisions\/6177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}