Climate action: the last target of European fossil fuel lobbyists | News from the world

Picture the scene: a dinner for MEPs organized by the largest fossil fuel companies to explain the efforts made by their industries to fight the climate emergency. On the guest list, the Croatian Minister for the Environment, current holder of the rotating EU presidency, and Guido Bortoni, adviser to the energy directorate of the European committees. No one from civil society or the NGO sector at all. In other words, a perfect lobbying event in Brussels.

Billed as Oil and gas and green agreement The dinner took place on February 17, just two weeks before the very first EU climate law was unveiled. The meal was sponsored by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), which represents 29 of the major European fossil fuel operators, including Total, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil.

According to EU transparency register The IOGP spent 350,160 in 2018 to lobby Brussels, so it can afford to take a few MEPs to dinner. The European Energy Forum (EEF) is the ideal organizer: it is chaired by Jerzy Buzek, MEP from the European People's Party (EPP), former Polish Prime Minister, former President of the European Parliament and currently President of his industry. research and energy committee. The forum has 82 associate members, companies that pay at least 7,000 per year in dues. As you would expect, they all belong to the oil and gas sector.

EEF politely denied a media request to attend an earlier meeting on November 26 entitled Gas: Driving the Energy Transition. We do not accept journalists during our events, was the answer. The event was sponsored by Eurogas, the leading lobbying organization in the gas industry, and two German companies, Uniper and Wintershall. An official from the European Commission's DG Energy was also present.

The European Green Deal, the 1tn committee plan to prepare the European economy for the climate crisis, has sparked a series of intensive lobbying activities. Since 2010, the top five oil and gas companies and their fossil fuel lobby groups have spent at least a quarter of a billion euros to buy influence at the heart of European decision-making, says a report produced by a coalition of climate NGOs (Corporate Europe Observatory, Food & Water Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe and Greenpeace).

These companies, whose activity consists in extracting fossil fuels, have an interest in delaying or undermining policies aimed at mitigating the effects of the climate crisis. They make extensive use of Brussels-based think tanks such as the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS). One week before the newly sworn commission presents its climate policies, CEPS hosted on December 4, by invitation only Green Deal event funded by Equinor and Fortum, the market leaders in energy in Norway and Finland, respectively.

Companies are invited to join CEPS as corporate members. ExxonMobil, for example, pays 15,000 a year for this access. The thinktank organized breakfasts reserved for members with guests such as Frans Timmermans, now European Commissioner in charge of the Green Deal.

The members of the team of the president of the commission, Ursula von der Leyens, are the subject of sustained attention from the energy industry and especially gas lobbyists for months. Just in the last 10 days of January, Eurogas representatives met with six commissioners and officials from the departments of environment, trade, budget, agriculture and economic affairs. Each time, the declared business of the meeting was the Green Deal.

Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson will be the keynote speaker at this year's Eurogas conference on March 19 in Brussels. Six members of the association's staff are accredited to access the European Parliament buildings. Eurogas spent 800,000 euros on lobbying in 2018 alone. DG Energy is very permeable to the gas lobby, says Pascal Canfin, MEP from Renew Europe and chairman of Parliament's environment committee.

The IOGP has also been busy. On 17 December, he met Ditte Juul Jorgensen, the head of DG Energy, then in January two other members of the European Commission, in different directions. The subject was of course the Green Deal.

Likewise, the employer group Business Europe has shown great interest in commissions for new projects for the environment. Von der Leyen himself, two of its vice-presidents and three commissioners are speakers at the annual meeting of federations on March 4, the day of the presentation of the new EU climate law.

Another way to influence European decision makers is to use lobbying companies. FTI Consulting is one of the most effective. Transparency International ranked it second for organizing meetings with the EU executive in 2018.

With 38 agents accredited for access to the European Parliament FTI billed Eurogas, then a new customer, between 25,000 and 50,000 in 2018. Revenues from ExxonMobil, its second largest account, totaled 600,000 to 700,000. In the same year, it conducted research confidential Gas infrastructure Europe. The measures for a sustainable gas storage market, the resulting study, was then published and is still on the website of the European commissions. The company has made good use of the many revolving doors available in Brussels. In 2016-2018, for example, Philip Lowe, after leading DG Energy (2010-2014), was FTI's senior advisor on public affairs.

Jean-Arnold Vinois is another example of revolving doors in operation. He is an energy policy advisor at the Jacques Delors Institute, a well-known think-tank, but also honorary commission director of energy and consultant at FleishmanHillard, another large lobbying company in Brussels. This firm includes the European Council for the Chemical Industry (Cefic) which won it nearly a million in 2018 the gas lobby Gas Naturally (25,000 to 50,000) and Fuels Europe, another oil and gas federation, among its customers.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the latest workhorse in the gas industry, seen as a way to justify its activities in fossil fuels. The catch is that CCS technology is far from ready for widespread use and even if research succeeds in perfecting the techniques, a drastic reduction in emissions will still be necessary over the next 20 years. The gas industry nevertheless persists in promoting it as a solution. Eurogas works hand in hand with the Global CCS Institute, the main lobby in this field. On 18 February, in partnership with the United Kingdom mission to the EU, it held a conference on the subject in Brussels. It is particularly difficult to pin down the role of EU governments in promoting the interests of their businesses. There is no equivalent to the EU transparency register for tracking national governments or their missions.

Industry is by no means the only one trying to influence European legislators on climate issues. Powerful environmental think tanks and NGOs such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Transport & Environment, the Climate Action Network or the European Climate Foundation (ECF) are also within walking distance. 39; work. Their financial means are substantial but inferior to their adversaries. In 2018, ECF reported spending between 500,000 and 600,000, while WWF spent 2.2 to 2.4 million over the same period.

Aude Massiot writes for Liberation on environmental issues. This article is part of a collaboration by This is Europe with Liberation and Tagezeitung.