What lobbying footprint does Big Oil have on EU climate policy?

Two new reports have claimed to show just how much influence fossil fuel company lobbying has on EU climate policymaking.

Transcript

00:00What lobbying footprint does big oil have on EU climate policy?

00:05The world's top seven fossil fuel companies by global revenue,

00:09along with a network of over 50 organizations,

00:12attended more than 1,000 meetings with the European Commission

00:15between 2019 and 2024,

00:18according to a new report published by Transparency International.

00:22Two-thirds of the meetings of the networks are also concerning Green Deal.

00:25So Green Deal was really the most lobbied policy area,

00:28and one subject that is recurring over and over again

00:31is the push for the use of hydrogen,

00:33but also the push of carbon storage and capture systems.

00:36Now, these systems are quite controversial today,

00:38but they found themselves their way into the new Commission priorities.

00:42Their total lobbying budget was close to 64 million euros,

00:46placing them among the most well-resourced organizations in Brussels,

00:49Corriguno said.

00:51He added that they found an overlap with the networks and the delegates

00:54that are present at the COP28 climate conference.

00:57We saw at the COP28 that it was the COP

00:59with the highest presence of fossil fuel lobbyists

01:01or organizations linked to the fossil fuel industry

01:03in the history of the COP.

01:05And what we see the results of what was decided together by the parties

01:08is that a total phase-out of fossil fuel was not enacted.

01:13Another report published by Fossil Free Politics

01:16claims Russia's invasion of Ukraine

01:18facilitated fossil fuel companies' political access

01:21to advise on Europe's response to the energy crisis.

01:26It shows, of course, that there was a repower EU agenda

01:29and they opened the door for the fossil fuel industry

01:32to ask for their input and they basically gave them free access

01:35to draft a new plan for the EU to respond to the threats

01:40linked to the Russian invasion

01:43and make the EU less dependent on Russian gas.

01:47Ursula von der Leyen stressed the Commission's transparency system

01:50should be strengthened by subjecting all managers

01:53to the Transparency Register,

01:55a database listing organizations that try to influence

01:58the European institutions' decisions.