Meet Total, one of the six biggest oil companies in the world. Headquartered in Paris, it recently wrote the UN to offer public support for climate action legislation.
Wouldn't that be great news? But as world leaders meet in the very same city to hammer out a new climate deal, Total is systematically obstructing the very policies it claims to support through behind-the-door deals and anti-climate action lobbying.
Total is implicated in a web of industry associations that are trying to kneecap real climate action, including organizations like the American Petroleum Association, which views the Paris climate summit as driven by “narrow political ideology".
Tell Total to keep its lobbyists out of the UN climate talks.
We can't let Total turn the Paris climate talks into more empty commitments. If we're going to get climate action legislation that works for people, not corporations, we need to keep Big Oil lobbyists out of the picture, whichever name tag they're wearing that day.
Total claims to support limits on greenhouse gas emissions, and even putting a price on carbon. And while that sounds nice on paper, it doesn't change the fact that Total's executives hold key roles in industry organizations that have consistently lobbied against stronger climate targets and more effective emissions trading.
The experts call it “misalignment within their messaging". We'll name it for what it is -- a deliberate and calculated effort to look good while doing everything possible to protect its bottom line.
If Total really supports climate action, it should keep its lobbyists out of the Paris climate change talks and allow policymakers to do their jobs without corporate interference. Otherwise, Total's “commitments" are nothing more than another case of greenwashing.
We are reaching the final week of the talks, and we need make sure corporations don't turn climate action legislation into more empty promises. Together, over 200,000 of us pushed Shell not to unleash its lobbying machine and so far, it's nowhere to be seen at the climate negotiations.
Now, it's time to hold Total accountable to its so-called commitment to fight climate change and demand it pull back from pushing these self-interested industry lobbying activities.
Tell Total to stop obstructing climate action and keep ALL its lobbyists out of the UN climate talks.
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More information:
Big oil and the obstruction of climate regulations, InfluenceMap, October 2015.