Statement of Resource Person, Dylan Tanner
6 November 2018
InfluenceMap’s research shows them to have since continued their attempts
to undermine the efforts underway by publicly mandated bodies globally to
act decisively on climate change in the manner dictated by the Paris
Agreement and recommended by IPCC communications. The research
suggests then that, while the tactics opposing policy progress on climate
change by the Carbon Majors have changed from outright denial of the
science to more subtle messaging themes, the strategic opposition to global
progress on climate change policy remains the same.
11. The remainder of this Statement provides comprehensive data-driven
evidence demonstrating that lobbying efforts continue unabated. It also notes
key corporations among the Carbon Majors that are active in opposing
meaningful climate policy.
6) Lobbying by the Carbon Majors on Climate Change Policy
1. Numerous sources had noted the significance of corporate lobbying on prior
to InfluenceMap’s inception. Since 2010 some of these are noted.
a. A 2011 paper from Harvard Business School researchers, arguing that
a broad measure of corporate impact on the climate change agenda
should consider the company’s impact on climate policy.20
b. A 2011 Greenpeace report that demonstrates through clear case
studies how corporations including BASF, ArcelorMittal, BHP
Billiton and Royal Dutch Shell were augmenting the damage of their
operational emissions with active political campaigns against climatemotivated regulations and policy from governments.21
c. In 2011 – four years before the Paris Agreement – Christiana Figueres,
executive secretary of UNFCCC noted the profound impact corporate
lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry were having on progress on
climate change policy.22
d. A detailed study by the Union of Concerned Scientists from 2012 that
concluded that while policy measures in the US were needed on
climate change ��many U.S. companies are using their influence to
muddy the waters—casting unwarranted doubt on the science, adding
confusion to the policy discussion, and holding back or slowing down
action on solutions.” 23
20
What Environmental Ratings Miss, Auden Schendler and Mike Toffel, October 2011
21
Who’s holding us back?, Greenpeace, November 2011
22
Christiana Figueres: 'lobbyists for fuels of yesterday have a louder voice', The Guardian September 2011
23
How Corporations Have Influenced the U.S. Dialogue on Climate Science and Policy (2012), Union of Concerned Scientists
6