Blog Categories: activism

Today’s public hearing on climate change denialism highlighted oil and gas corporation ExxonMobil’s responsibility for deliberately spreading false information, and underlined the impact of such misinformation on EU climate action. The company’s refusal to attend the hearing has led a growing number of Members of the European Parliament to back civil society calls to strip ExxonMobil lobbyists of their parliamentary lobby badges.

The first hearing on corporate climate change denial at the EU level saw experts give testimony on the history and political impact of the issue, as well as the role oil and gas company ExxonMobil has played in misleading policy-makers and the public. “I have only shown you the tip of the iceberg,” MIT/Harvard climate science historian Dr. Geoffrey Supran told Parliamentarians, presenting ExxonMobil as “one cog in a well-funded, well-oiled denial machine.”

However, the company’s absence at the hearing will likely have unpleasant consequences for its lobbyists. Similar to Monsanto when it refused to follow a parliamentary summons for a hearing, ExxonMobil may be directly reprimanded by MEPs: a set of rules established in 2017 makes it possible to revoke the parliament access badges of any company ignoring a summons.

Considering that ExxonMobil has spent over €35 million since 2010 to lobby the EU and protect its lucrative business interests, taking away the EU Parliament’s accreditation of the corporation’s in-house lobbyists would be a first step to free EU climate policy from the decades-long stranglehold of the fossil fuels industry, and send a strong signal to other companies.

More and more MEPs are backing the civil society organisations demanding ExxonMobil be stripped of its lobby badges. Ahead of the next meetings of the EU Parliament’s Conference of Presidents, where such decisions are made, Food & Water Europe and Corporate Europe Observatory, and Friends of the Earth Europe are working to raise more awareness of the necessity to keep fossil fuel corporations as far away from climate and energy policy-making as possible – especially ones as unrepentant as ExxonMobil.

Frida Kieninger of Food & Water Europe, and official parliamentary petitioner:

“Parliamentarians at today’s hearing learned just how dangerous and omnipresent deliberate misinformation about the grave climate impact of fossil fuels really is. We still have a small window of opportunity to stop absolute climate chaos, so it is only logical to start by shutting out any corporation misleading policy-makers and the public. MEP Molly Scott-Cato announced that the process to strip ExxonMobil of its lobby badges will start today. This action is welcomed, and a necessary first step.

Pascoe Sabido, Corporate Europe Observatory:

“ExxonMobil’s well-funded EU lobbying shows that the company has moved from denying climate change to delaying and weakening climate action. But looking at the havoc global warming is already wreaking in many parts of the world, the impact is equally devastating. The EU Parliament must show Exxon and the rest of the fossil fuel industry the door, no matter how deep their pockets. Millions of young people are taking to the streets to demand determined climate action, but do MEPs accept the challenge?

Notes to editors:

• (Re-)Watch the public hearing here. The European Parliament’s petition and environment committees took it upon themselves to organise the hearing after the European Commission rejected a petition by NGO Food & Water Europe demanding ExxonMobil be held accountable for its climate change cover-up. In the US, ExxonMobil is already facing court cases in Massachusetts and the state of New York over its climate change cover-up.
• A media stunt took place before the meeting; photos are available here and may be used freely under a creative commons license (© Lora Verheecke, Friends of the Earth Europe).
• “Climate Arson”, new research by Corporate Europe Observatory, zooms further in on ExxonMobil’s lobby spending, meetings, networks, and lobby strategy shift: having denied climate change and its causes for decades, ExxonMobil now tries to safeguard its fossil fuels business while presenting a climate-friendly face to policy-makers and the public.
• ExxonMobil recently reported its latest profit figures as $20.8 billion in 2018.

Contacts:                                         

Food & Water Europe: Frida Kieninger, [email protected], +32 289 310 45 / +32 487 24 99 05

Corporate Europe Observatory: Pascoe Sabido, [email protected], +44 7969 665 189/ +32 486 85 74 16

For immediate release, March 18, 2019

Brussels – After decades of concealing the link between fossil fuels and global warming, oil and gas giant ExxonMobil will be the subject of the first EU-level hearing on climate-change denial on Thursday 21 March in Brussels. The company, whose lobbying has weakened European climate action, is refusing to attend the public event; demands to revoke Exxon lobbyists’ access badges to the European Parliament are growing louder.

During Thursday’s hearing, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and the interested public will hear expert testimony on the history and political impact of climate change denial and the role ExxonMobil has played in this. Exxon has known about the threat of man-made climate change for over 55 years and has since done its best to spread doubt and misinformation – first about the existence of climate change, then the extent of the problem and its cause.

Despite claiming to have stopped their deception campaign, Exxon continues to fund lobby groups and think tanks spreading doubt about climate change. While the company is already under investigation in the US, the hearing in Brussels, put in motion by environmental NGO Food & Water Europe, will be the first time its misdeeds are scrutinised at the EU level.

Through direct lobbying, sponsorship of think tanks, membership in industry associations and for-hire lobbyists from consultancies, Exxon has established a solid presence in Brussels and is making its leverage in the political heart of the EU felt.

Having spent more than €30 million since 2010 to lobby EU decision-makers and organise numerous meetings with high-level EU Commission officials, the oil and gas giant continues to fight against renewable energy and peddles false ‘solutions’ to the climate crisis, such as new investments in gas infrastructure, as well as carbon capture and storage. A new Corporate Europe Observatory report, due out on Tuesday 19 March, will reveal the latest figures, connections and impact of Exxon’s lobbying ahead of the upcoming hearing.

Food & Water Europe Campaigns Officer Frida Kieninger said:

“Exxon’s deceitful lobbying has been slowing down ambitious EU climate policies for much too long. While Exxon has been keen to snatch up any opportunity to lobby EU decision-makers, it is refusing to show up at the EU Parliament hearing to explain its behavior. Exxon must be held accountable. We are asking parliamentarians to strip the multinational of its EU Parliament lobby badges, just like they did with Monsanto in 2017.”

Corporate Europe Observatory’s climate policy researcher Pascoe Sabido added:

“Exxon not only has oil and gas fields in Europe, but also considerable influence over EU policy-making. The company has used its leverage to deceive politicians, delay and derail climate action and push for false solutions like gas to safeguard its business. Exxon and other big polluting corporations continue to show us that they put their profits before all else. Our only chance to tackle the looming climate catastrophe is to keep them as far away from policy-making as possible.”

Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Europe and Food & Water Watch commented:

“Exxon’s influence by deceit must end. It’s time for members of the EU parliament to rethink whether they want to continue giving Exxon the privilege of peddling its fraud, and to consider the impact the company’s trickery has had on all of us as we teeter on the edge of climate chaos.”

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Notes to editors:

• THE HEARING: The hearing will take place on Thursday 21 March, 10:30-12:30, European Parliament, József Antall building, Room 4Q1 (JAN4Q1), and will be live-streamed here. The draft agenda can be found HERE. To register and get access to the Parliament, please email your request stating your name, nationality, date of birth and passport number to [email protected]

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: There will be a media stunt before the hearing with spokespeople on site, taking place at 09:30 at the Espace Simone Veil entrance of the Altiero Spinelli building of the EU Parliament.

PRESS CONFERENCE: After the hearing, Climate Science Historian Dr. Geoffrey Supran (Harvard University & MIT), MEPs Eleonora Evi and Molly Scott Cato, and Frida Kieninger (Food & Water Europe) will answer press questions at 13:00 at the Politikovskaya Room, PHS 0A50.

• REVOKING LOBBYIST ACCESS badges to the EU Parliament: When in 2017 chemicals company Monsanto (since bought by Bayer) refused to attend a public EU Parliament hearing on allegations of regulatory interference, parliamentarians for the first time employed new rules to revoke parliament access for companies ignoring summons.
• EXXON LOBBYING RESEARCH: Corporate Europe Observatory’s new research report on Exxon’s lobby spending, networks and influencing tactics in the EU will be published on Tuesday 19 March at 10:00. Advance copies of “Climate Arson: The strategies and impact of ExxonMobil’s dangerous EU lobbying” are available on request.
• BACKSTORY to the hearing: Following the European Commission’s 2017 rejection of a petition by Food & Water Europe demanding ExxonMobil be held accountable for its climate change cover-up, the European Parliament’s petition and environment committees have taken it upon themselves to organise a hearing.
• IN THE US: Exxon is already facing court cases in Massachusetts and the state of New York over its climate cover-up.

Contacts:

Food & Water Europe: Frida Kieninger (DE, EN, FR, ES), [email protected], +32 289 310 45 / +32 487 24 99 05
Corporate Europe Observatory: Pascoe Sabido (EN, FR, ES), [email protected], +44 7969 665 189/ +32 486 85 74 16

Dublin — Green groups – including Futureproof Clare, Gluaiseacht, Safety Before LNG, Friends of the Irish Environment, Not Here Not Anywhere, Love Leitrim, Friends of the Earth and Food & Water Europe – have challenged in an open letter ESRI’s recent Liquefied Natural Gas Valuation research bulletin which states that importing fracked liquefied natural gas (LNG) or developing a storage facility could reduce gas prices in future.

ERSI builds its assumption on the central perspective that natural gas has “environmental advantages relative to more polluting coal and oil” and that it therefore “contributes towards policy objectives that target environment quality and sustainable development.”

The signatories of the open letter heavily criticize ESRI for not willing to pay attention to the amount of existing crucial scientific evidence that proves the significant negative climate role of gas (in particular fracked gas) and the economic consequences related to the need to fully decarbonize our economy by 2050!  They point out that fossil gas is just another fossil fuel that we need to phase-out within the next 10 to 30 years – in order to avoid overshooting significant climate tipping-points.

LNG is a very capital and energy intensive industry. There is also an operational expense and a shipping expense. On top of that the process is complicated and requires up to 25% of the energy content of the gas.

All existing EU LNG terminals have an extremely low utilization rate of under 25%. A 2018 study, commissioned by the EU COM, on “The role of Trans-European gas infrastructure in the light of the 2050 decarbonisation targets” concludes that “the utilisation level of LNG terminals and import pipelines would significantly decrease, and some assets might need to be decommissioned or used for other purposes”.  Referring to Ireland it says that “capital expenditures will in the future be more focused on replacement rather than on expansion of the network” and that “the risk for stranded gas assets is in Ireland limited as it does not have LNG terminals or gas storage facilities”

For the signatories of the open letter, any new LNG terminal that is going online is very likely to become a stranded asset – making the Shannon & Cork projects risky bets for Ireland.

New gas infrastructure has a significant economic lifespan (usually between 30 and 40 years) that goes beyond the point when we’d need to fully decarbonize. The construction of any new fossil fuel infrastructure contributes therefore to increasing the risk of missing the EU 2050 climate objective and Paris Agreement targets by creating a “lock in” effect to high levels of gas consumption.

Referring to a 2018 study about the economic costs of climate in Europe, the signatories highlight that the costs of climate inaction will amount in hundreds of billions of Euro per year. This would contradict the assumption that investment in new fossil infrastructure will result in economic benefits for consumers.

Open Letter

Notes for the Editor:

• ESRI March 2019 bulletin
• Prof. Howarth, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA, paper on methane emissions and presentation
• Analysis papers on LNG Jordan Cove Full Life Cycle Greenhouse Gas Emissions and on role of gas as a bridge fuel 
• EU COM report “The role of Trans-European gas infrastructure in the light of the 2050 decarbonisation targets” 
• COACCH (Co-Designing the Assessment of Climate Change Costs) study

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Contacts:

• Anne Marie Harrington, Community Organiser, Futureproof Clare
  Phone: 00353868645312, email: [email protected]
• Tony Lowes, Director, Friends of the Irish Environment
  Phone:  0035 3 (0)27 74771, email: [email protected]

• Meaghan Carmody, Head of Mobilisation, Friends of the Earth Ireland
  Phone:  01 639 4652  , email: [email protected]

• Eoin O Leidhin, Gluaiseacht
  Phone:  0035 3873635729  , email: [email protected]
• Andy Gheorghiu, policy advisor and campaigner, Food & Water Europe
  Phone: 0049 160 20 30 974, email: [email protected]
• Eddie Mitchell, Love Leitrim
  Phone: 0035 3872239972, email: [email protected]
• Johnny McElliot, Safety Before LNG
  Phone: 0035 3872804474, email: [email protected]