Climate

Corporate Europe Observatory, Carbon Trade Watch and Fern have nominated the European Commission and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme for the Greenwash Circus Awards 2013. They argue the EU ETS needs to be exposed for what it is, a subsidy for the worst polluters that the Commission is using to avoid effective climate policies and is irresponsibly expanding it into other regions and areas.

A position statement, entitled "Time to scrap the ETS", has been produced to collectively take a stand against the EU-ETS. It aims to help create space for the end of the ETS to be seen as a feasible political option. More than 30 organisations, including Corporate Europe Observatory, have already supported the document. The signatories call on civil society organisations and movements to endorse it and to join the fight to abolish the ETS.

On Wednesday 21 November all members of the European Parliament were due in the plenary room of the Strasbourg Parliament headquarters to vote on two reports on shale gas. The day before an exhibition was set up across from the plenary room to convince MEPs that shale gas has no environmental risks and needs no further regulation. What was not visible was that the group co-organising the exhibition and subsequent reception, the Responsible Energy Citizens Coalition (RECC), is a front group for big companies with commercial interest in shale gas development, such as Polish PGNiG.

Oil and gas companies from the United States and across Europe are targeting Brussels in an all-out campaign to prevent EU-wide rules for the developing shale gas industry. No legislation has been proposed, but there has already been intensive lobbying in the European Parliament and Commission, with industry funding reports, advertisements and websites, designed to show that shale gas does not pose a threat to the environment or to public health, and to promote the fiction that it is a green source of fuel.

An army of several hundred industry lobbyists, many representing Japanese and North American corporations, has quietly laid siege to Brussels in an effort to persuade the European Union (EU) not to ban powerful greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) present in Europe’s refrigeration and air conditioning systems.

It is generally not a good idea to develop climate policy with the banks, whether its with a few of them or with them all. However, this was the essence of a debate which took place recently concerning a meeting scheduled between a high-level official from DG Clima and the carbon traders lobby, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA). Peter Zapfel, a key man at the Commission responsible for the Emissions Trading System (ETS), the EU flagship climate policy, had scheduled a private briefing with IETA to discuss the Commission's planned measures to boost carbon prices.

The nuclear industry is gearing up to the first anniversary of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster by arguing that nuclear power remains central to the EU’s energy needs. Over the last year the industry has repeated key public relations messages that nuclear energy is not only safe, but central to any low carbon, secure energy future. And its vociferous PR campaign and highly effective lobby network, has been welcomed by parts of the European Commission.

A new European Commission measure has opened the door to the granting of millions of euros worth of subsidies to help the continent’s largest corporate polluters with their electricity bills. This report shows how:

The EU's emissions trading system has fundamental flaws and is failing to deliver the carbon cuts needed, campaigners told a debate in Brussels (Tuesday) ahead of the start of UN climate talks in Durban, South Africa.And an MEP warned the debate that industry lobbying was damaging the EU's position on climate change, accusing BusinessEurope of failing to represent the views of its members who are calling for tougher targets.