Environment

CEO's work on environmental issues focuses on energy and the fight against climate change, as well as on water.

Lobby “deluge” on titanium dioxide, while labelling is postponed

26.09.2018

To classify as strongly and widely as possible, or not to – that is the EU’s question on titanium dioxide right now. The chemical is found in many everyday items including sunscreen and paint and is a “suspected carcinogen”. Discussion of the classification issue are underway, and what is already clear is that the controversy about corporate lobbying on this file is making some member states think again.

Packaging lobby’s support for anti-litter groups deflects tougher solutions

28.03.2018

As political support for radical solutions to tackle the scourge of single-use plastics grows, we look at the links between the packaging industry and anti-litter NGOs in Brussels and beyond.

Beyond the pale on Titanium Dioxide

12.07.2018

Industry lobbyists are spending millions of euros to influence an upcoming EU decision on labelling titanium dioxide – found in everyday products like sunscreen – a “suspected carcinogen”. The lobbying is led by an unregistered trade association and a public relations consultancy; nonetheless, they appear to have the ear of member states and the European Commission.

Industry fights EU cancer warning for sunscreen chemical with unregistered lobbyists

11.07.2018

From sunscreen to paint, sweets and toothpaste, titanium dioxide is a chemical whitener found in many everyday products. An ongoing EU process to classify the chemical as a “suspected carcinogen” when inhaled could lead to product warning labels. But hefty lobbying by the chemicals industry seems to be weakening the resolve of the member states taking the final decision.

Biosafety in Danger

29.06.2018

Documents released to Corporate Europe Observatory following a Freedom of Information request reveal how pro-biotech lobby platform Public Research Regulation Initiative (PRRI) unites industry, researchers and regulators in ‘like-minded’ groups to influence crucial international biosafety talks under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

Plastic promises

22.05.2018

The plastics industry mounted a significant lobby campaign to influence the European Commission’s recent Plastics Strategy. Industry is now seeking to unpick or undermine key elements of the strategy through lacklustre or non-existing voluntary commitments, or outright opposition. With the Commission likely to publish its proposal to tackle single-use plastic products any day, will it adopt an ambitious approach towards binding regulations on industry?

What the Monsanto Papers tell us about corporate science

01.03.2018

The Monsanto Papers are a trove of internal documents slowly released since March 2017 in a US lawsuit by cancer victims against Monsanto over its ubiquitous herbicide, Roundup. They tell a lot about how Monsanto actively subverts science, both in its practices and the way it abuses science’s moral authority to push for its interests.

Dodgy Deals

19.12.2017

CETA has now been provisionally applied. Our new mobile and desktop game Dodgy Deals lets players face some of the dangerous features of trade deals like CETA and shows what is at stake.

Gene Drive Files reveal covert lobbying tactics to influence UN expert group

03.12.2017

A large set of emails - the Gene Drive Files - reveal how actors with a vested interest in the development of gene drives have organised themselves to influence the work of the relevant UN expert group, with financial backing from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Climate

COP23: From the coal mine to the conference centre

08.11.2017

Negotiations are now underway at COP23, the 23rd round of UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany. But the day before countries sat down to the arduous task of tackling climate change, 3000 people were taking matters into their own hands, occupying a coal mine only a few miles away from the conference centre.

Two years after Dieselgate: car industry still drives Berlin and Brussels

18.09.2017

This week marks the two-year anniversary of one of the most serious cases of corporate fraud in modern history: the Dieselgate scandal. In September 2015, car manufacturer Volkswagen was caught red-handed in the use of ‘defeat devices’ - software enabling its diesel cars to pass pollution emissions tests, while actually exceeding EU pollution limits by more than ten times once on the road.

A match made in hell

27.04.2017

Six reasons why a Bayer-Monsanto merger would pose a grave danger to the planet and people worldwide.