FROM MONTREAL TO KYOTO

Today, the multinational fossil fuel industry is perpetuating a similar crime against the atmosphere and the global climate that the chemical industry committed against the ozone layer.

The fossil fuel industry spends millions of dollars lobbying to block desperately needed, legally binding international agreements on emission controls of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. This is the single most important requirement for the protection of the global climate, and will be the main item at the next Meeting of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention in Kyoto, Japan in December, 1997.

The main lobby group for the fossil fuel industry is the Global Climate Coalition, which worries more about the industry's business climate than the global climate. The core strategy of the Global Climate Coalition is to challenge the science, fund spurious 'scientific' counter-claims, and assert that there are still too many scientific uncertainties about climate change. Its main goal is to try to convince governments that action on controlling greenhouse gas emissions would be premature with negative impacts on the economy and that no action should be taken until the middle of the next century.

Some of the same chemical corporations that brought us the ozone crisis Ð Du Pont, ICI, Elf Atochem, Great Lakes Chemicals Ð are also part of the Global Climate Coalition. They are, however, not alone. Most of the major airlines, all the major automobile manufacturers, all the oil companies and the oil producing nations, as well as the US Chamber of Commerce are also part of the GCC. The fossil fuel industry also fronts other lobby groups, for example "The International Climate Change Partnership", and the "Business Council for A Sustainable Energy Future".

An April 3, 1995 article in the Globe and Mail, reprinted from the British magazine The Economist mirrors the mentality of the fossil fuel industry and its corporate allies:

"It is far too early to be panicked into Draconian actions to avert global warming, especially when most actions would pose a bigger threat to human well-being than does global warming...Greens will no doubt continue to paint their scary pictures of the future. What they will ask, if climate change were to entail a sudden lurch that led to half the world starving to death in 50 years time? The best answer is that anything can happen in half a century: even an invasion by aliens...On present evidence, though, any huge catastrophe looks highly improbable." These words sound ominously similar to those of the chemical industry during the first two decades of the ozone crisis.

Shall we learn nothing from one crisis to another?

The most important lesson that the Montreal Protocol teaches us leading up to Kyoto is that governments must first and foremost act to protect the long term interests of people and the environment, and that the influence of multinational corporations within international protocols must be curtailed to serve the survival needs of the planet.

For information regarding Greenpeace International's Ozone Protection work, please contact:
John Maté, Ozone Project Coordinator, e-mail: jmate@sfu.ca
Bill Hare, Climate Policy Director, e-mail: bhare@arms.greenpeace.org