EXXON MOBIL BACKED GROUP TRYING TO RUIN ECO-AGREEMENT
ANDREW BUNCOMBE, INDEPENDENT, UK - A detailed and disturbing strategy
document has revealed an extraordinary American plan to destroy
Europe's support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The
ambitious, behind-the-scenes plan was passed to The Independent this
week, just as 189 countries are painfully trying to agree the second
stage of Kyoto at the UN climate conference in Montreal. It was
pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa and the German
utility giant RWE.
Put together by a lobbyist who is a senior official at a group partly
funded by Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest oil company and a fierce
opponent of anti-global warming measures, the plan seeks to draw
together major international companies, academics, think-tanks,
commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into a
powerful grouping to destroy further EU support for the treaty.
It details just how the so-called "European Sound Climate Policy
Coalition" would work. Based in Brussels, the plan would have
anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and
networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted
to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its demanding cuts
in carbon dioxide emissions.
It has been drawn up by Chris Horner, a senior official with the
Washington-based Competitive Enterprise Institute and a veteran
campaigner against Kyoto and against the evidence of climate change.
One of his colleagues who describes himself as an adviser to
President George Bush was the subject of a censure motion by the
Commons last year after he attacked the Government's chief scientist.
Mr Horner, whose CEI group has received almost $1.5m from Exxon Mobil,
is convinced that Europe could be successfully influenced by such a
policy coalition just as the US government has been.