Kick the fossil fuel industry out of politics!
Members of the European Parliament, Manon AUBRY, Martin SCHIRDEWAN, Marco ZANNI, Manfred WEBER, Iratxe GARCÍA PÉREZ, Stéphane SÉJOURNÉ, Terry REINTKE, Philippe LAMBERTS and Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament
Petition
Energy prices are soaring and people are struggling to heat their homes. But the fossil fuel lobby is spending millions to sabotage policies that would help us cope. We need European leaders to cut ties with the fossil fuel lobby by:
- Revoking the access for fossil fuel companies to EU institutions, starting with the immediate removal of their lobbying badges.
- Developing a conflict of interest framework across EU institutions on climate and energy policy, similar to restrictions on the tobacco industry lobbying on health policy.
- Setting up an EU task force of climate and social advisors, including NGOs, energy poverty groups and trade unions to build a socially and environmentally just advisory group.
Why is this important?
Brussels is crawling with fossil fuel lobbyists like never before. [1] They’re working overtime to make sure politicians don’t ditch coal and gas in favour of renewables.
On top of that, the fossil fuel industry is raking in huge extra profits, while many of us are facing a terrible choice between heating our homes or putting food on the table. [2]
The good news is: their access to our politicians is not written in stone. Lobbyists from Russian oil companies had their access privileges revoked. [3] Let’s do the same for the fossil fuel lobbyists who are harming people and the planet.
And we have no time to lose. Fossil fuel lobbyists want to shut down plans that would help ordinary people survive this winter, like capping energy bills or putting a higher tax on excess profits. [4] We need our European politicians to cut ties with dirty fossil fuels RIGHT NOW.
In the past decades, fossil fuel giants have paid millions in lobbying to keep Europe hooked on gas while blocking a transition to renewables. The fossil fuel industry is using the same tactics as Big Tobacco sponsoring greenwashing events for politicians and coming up with dubious research downplaying the dangers of climate change. [5]
And now they’re fighting to keep gas prices high and families all across Europe are paying the price. We need to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable and end their access to our politicians.
Tell our politicians to kick the fossil fuel industry out of politics, starting with the immediate removal of their lobbying badges.
References:
- There were more than 100 meetings between the fossil fuel industry and European Commission leaders since February 2022 - that’s one every other day: https://corporateeurope.org/en/2022/10/fuelling-cost-living-crisis
Fossil fuel companies also outnumbered almost every national delegation at the COP27 in 2022: https://www.euronews.com/green/2022/11/10/fossil-fuel-lobbyists-outnumber-almost-every-national-delegation-at-cop27-data-shows - https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy-environment/news/analysis-forget-showering-its-eat-or-heat-for-shocked-europeans-hit-by-energy-crisis/
- https://euobserver.com/eu-political/155120
- https://corporateeurope.org/en/2022/11/how-gas-lobby-fuelling-cost-living-crisis
- https://edition.cnn.com/2021/05/13/business/exxon-climate-change-harvard/index.html
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