Press Release: Polluters leave Lima triumphant - CEO reaction

"If COP20 is supposed to lay the road to Paris, then polluters have taken control of the steering wheel and are driving us off a climate cliff."

Said Pascoe Sabido, campaigner and researcher at Corporate Europe Observatory.

"They may have left Lima triumphant, but through building our power at the local, national and international level, we can put the voices of people before polluters, reclaim the wheel and steer the world towards the real, bottom-up solutions that are not just necessary but already out there."

"What's on the table only deepens the climate crisis. It does nothing for those already being affected by climate change, like in the Philippines, or those who will be affected in the future, i.e. all of us."

"Rich countries and their dirty industries are setting the agenda. Like in Warsaw, the voices of polluters are drowning out the voices of real people and communities on the front line. Instead of an energy transformation the message appears to be fossil fuels full steam ahead."

"The world needs real solutions, but Lima has failed them. The deal allows in false solutions like carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hasn't shut the door on failed carbon markets, aimed at allowing the biggest historical polluters a way out of cutting emissions and continuing with business as usual."

• The presence of dirty energy was challenged inside and out of COP20: as well as Shell being invited to speak about CCS alongside the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, they – along with Chevron and others – sponsored side events inside the negotiations, but youth staged an action and disrupted the event. At the corporate World Climate Summit, hundreds of protestors went to blockade the hotel hosting it.
• Dirty energy has done most of its work before getting here: CCS and carbon markets aren't the result of a few side events, but concerted and aggressive lobbying at national level before arriving at the negotiations. That's why Canada is pushing CCS and the EU is pushing carbon markets.
• Corporations want more influence: despite the UNFCCC stating that they're doing their upmost to include business in negotiations (e.g. a business-only pre-COP in Warsaw), they want to have equal status as countries i.e. write the deal themselves!
• We need to kick them out of the COP and our governments: if we're serious about tackling climate change, those driving the climate crisis have no place at the negotiating table and no place anywhere near our national governments.

Press Contact: Pascoe Sabido - pascoe@corporateeurope.org; +51 969 706 938