*If you would like to add your organization’s name to this letter, please fill out this form.
To:
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker
Her Excellency Erna Solberg, Prime Minister, Norway
The Right Honourable Jacinda Ardern, Prime Minister, New Zealand
His Excellency Scott Morrison, Prime Minister, Australia
Cc:
Miguel Arias Cañete, European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action, European Union
Ola Elvestuen, Minister of Climate and Environment, Norway
The Honourable James Shaw, Minister for Climate Change, New Zealand
The Honourable Sussan Ley MP, Minister for the Environment, Australia
17 June, 2019
Dear Mr. Juncker, Ms. Solberg, Ms. Ardern, and Mr. Morrison:
We, the undersigned 300 civil society organizations and networks, represent hundreds of thousands of people around the world. We stand in solidarity with Global South communities and governments fighting for just climate policy and real solutions. We are writing to demand that you stop siding with the interests of the likes of the United States and Big Polluters in blocking the development of a conflict-of-interest policy at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
People are paying for the climate crisis with their lives and livelihoods. We experience the deadly consequences of a rapidly warming planet daily. The need for strong policy and just action could not be more urgent.
Yet for decades, the very corporations that have fueled the climate crisis have spent billions of dollars to water down and weaken progress at every turn, deploying a vast array of trade associations and front groups to mislead the public, discredit climate science, and block meaningful climate policy within the UNFCCC and elsewhere. Though they present themselves as part of the “solution,” their actions have illustrated time and again that they represent their own profiteering interests. This is as true now as it ever has been. For example, in the three years following the Paris Agreement, the five largest public oil and gas corporations spent more than US$1 billion on misleading branding and lobbying on climate.[i]
Enough is enough.
It’s time to scale up and implement the people-centered climate policy and just solutions that Global South communities, Indigenous leaders, low-income communities, and people of color around the world have been developing and advocating for years. To do this we must remove the conflicting interests of polluting industries—most notably the fossil fuel industry—that continue to be a primary obstacle to progress.
From June 17 to 27, your negotiators gathering in Bonn, Germany at the intersessional meeting of the UNFCCC can and must embody true climate leadership. We urge you to stop working hand in hand with Big Polluters like fossil fuel corporations and the climate-change-denying Trump administration, among others. Rather, within the negotiations on Arrangements for Intergovernmental Meetings (AIM), your government negotiators must acknowledge the repeated requests of governments representing the majority of the world’s population and advance an effective conflict-of-interest policy to protect against polluting industries’ vested interests in the talks.
The public mandate is clear. Over recent years, more than 400 civil society groups,[ii] nearly 650,000 people,[iii] and governments collectively representing 70% of the world’s population have called for addressing this fundamental roadblock. Yet your treaty negotiators have refused to heed the call, at best conveniently overlooking it and at worst advancing the same agenda as that of the U.S. and the Trump administration, among others.
The European Union, for example, has ignored a formal request from its own democratically elected Parliament to support tackling this issue.[iv] And last year at these negotiations, treaty negotiators from your countries allowed the United States to yet again sabotage global climate diplomacy, blocking any attempt to address conflicts of interest within the AIM negotiations.[v]
True climate leadership means rejecting fossil fuel industry agendas in whatever form they take. It means standing with people all over the world who are bringing forward meaningful, just solutions to the climate crisis.[vi] It means taking the urgent, just, necessary action we need right now and rejecting the dangerous distractions put forward by the very corporations that have fueled this crisis. All this begins with protecting climate policy by passing a robust conflict-of-interest policy that will protect climate policymaking at the UNFCCC from the undue influence of polluting industries.
The eyes of the world are on Bonn, and people everywhere are awaiting your climate leadership. We urge you to stop blocking an effective conflict-of-interest policy at the UNFCCC.
Sincerely,
198methods.org
350 Aotearoa
350 Mass for a Better Future
350 Silicon Valley
350.org
350.org Australia
A Sud – Ecologia e Cooperazione
Abibiman Foundation
Aclimatando
Action on Smoking and Health
ActionAid International
Agro-ecologie et Environnement Vert
Al-Haq
Aliança RECOs – Redes de Cooperação Comunitária Sem Fronteiras
Alianza para la Prevención y Control de Enfermedades No Transmisibles
All Nepal Peasants’ Federation
Alliance for Tax and Fiscal Justice Nepal
Alyansa Tigil Mina
Amazon Watch
Amis de la Terre France / Friends of the Earth France
Amis des Étrangers au Togo: ADET
APTA – Asociación para la Prevención del Tabaquismo en Aragón
Around the Corner Capital
Asamblea Socioambiental de General ROCA
La Asamblea Veracruzana de Iniciativas y Defensa Ambiental
ASEDUCA (Asociación de Estudiantes de Derecho UCA)
Asha Parivar
Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development
Asociación Ambiente y Sociedad
Asociación Civil Centro de Cultura Popular Labor
Asociación Colombiana de Salud Pública
Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos
Asociación Morelense de Lucha contra el Cáncer A C
Association de Citoyenneté et de Développement Durable (AC2D)
Association for Rural Social Welfare Nepal (ARSOW Nepal)
Association Workshop for All Beings (Pracownia na rzecz Wszystkich Istot)
Athenaeum LLC
Attac France
Attac Norway
Attac Spain
The Australian Forests and Climate Alliance
Aytzim: Ecological Judaism
Bangladesh Environment Network
Bank Information Center Europe
Bienaventurados los Pobres – Be.Pe
Berliner Wassertisch
Bisbee & Cochise County People for Community & Environmental Rights
Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)
Brazilian Decolonial Network
Breathe Easy Susquehanna County
Bretton Woods Project
Bucks Environmental Action
Bürgerinitiative Gesundheit und Klimaschutz Unterelbe
Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt
Climate Action Network Tanzania
Carbon Market Watch
Centar za životnu sredinu/ Friends of the Earth Bosnia and Herzegovina
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for Environmental Justice
Centro de Investigación para la Epidemia del Tabaquismo
Change Partnership
Chile Libre de Tabaco
Citizens for Sanity
CLEAN (Coastal Livelihood and Environmental Action Network)
ClientEarth
Climate Action Coalition Bulgaria
Climate Action Monaro
Climate and Development Lab
Climate-Change Balmain-Rozelle
Climate Coalition
Climate Generation: A Will Steger Legacy
Climate Hawks Vote
Climate Justice Edmonton
CliMates
CNCD-11.11.11
CNS (Citizen News Service)
Coalición ContraPESO
Coalición México Salud-Hable
Coalition to Protect New York
COAST/EquityBD
Colectivo El Torito AC
Colectivo VientoSur
Collectif 07 Stop Gaz de Schiste
Comisión Ética Contra la Tortura Chile
Comisión Nacional Permanente de Lucha Antitabáquica – COLAT
Community and Family Aid Foundation – Ghana
Cooperative Food Empowerment Directive
Coordination Climat Justice Sociale
COPACO (Confédération paysanne du Congo)
Corporación La Caleta
Corporate Accountability
Corporate Europe Observatory
Counter Balance
Debt Observatory in Globalisation (ODG)
The Democracy Center
Den Haag Fossielvrij
Earth Action, Inc.
EarthRights International
Ecologistas en Acción
EcoNexus
Educar Consumidores
Education, Economics, Environmental, Climate and Health Organization (EEECHO)
Earth in Brackets
EKOenergy
Ekologistak Martxan Bizkaia
Elmirans and Friends Against Fracking
EMPOWER INDIA
Energy and Climate Policy Institute for Just Transition
Engajamundo
Environmental Rights Action
Equity and Justice Working Group (EquityBD) Bangladesh
ETC Group
Fältbiologerna (Nature and Youth Sweden)
Farmworker Association of Florida
Fern
FIC Argentina
Food & Water Europe
Food Chain Workers Alliance
Fossielvrij Onderwijs
Foundation for the Conservation of the Earth (FOCONE)
Frack Free Lancashire
Frack Free United
Fracking Free Clare
Franciscan Action Network
Frente Amplio por el Medio Ambiente
Fresh Eyes – People to People Travel
FreshWater Accountability Project Ohio
Friends of the Earth Brisbane
Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland
Friends of the Earth Finland
Friends of the Earth International
Friends of the Earth US
Fund for Democratic Communities
Fundación Anáas
Fundación Ellen Riegner de Casas
Fundación Madariaga
Fundacja Rozwój TAK – Odkrywki NIE
FUNDEPS
Gatef
Gender Action
Global Forest Coalition
Global Justice Now
Global Witness
GoiEner S.Coop
GRAIN
Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS)
Grassroots Global Justice
Green Course
Green Liberal Democrats (UK)
Green Newton
Green Scenery
Green Thought Association
Greenpeace
Greenvest
Group of Scientists and Engineers for a Sustainable Energy Future Without Nuclear Power
Grüne Bildungswerkstatt NÖ
Grupo de Estudios Ambientales AC
Hawaii Institute for Human Rights
HEAL (Health, Environment, Agriculture, Labor) Food Alliance
Healthy Gulf
CLAS – Coalición Latinoamérica Saludable
Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington DC
Highlander Research & Education Center
Humanitaire Plus (TOGO)
IAHPE – International Association for Health Policy in Europe
IFOAM-Organics International
Indian Social Action Forum
Indigenous Environmental Network
Indivisible
Ingenjörer för Miljön
Institute for Policy Studies – Climate Justice Program
Instituto de Ecología Política
Instituto Superior de Agronomia
InterAmerican Heart Foundation
International Fellowship of Reconciliation Austria
JA (Justicia Ambiental)
Jagaran Nepal
Jamaa Resource Initiatives, Kenya
Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement
Jewish Climate Action Network – MA
Jordens Vänner/Friends of the Earth, Sweden
Khpal Kore Organization
KOTHOWAIN (Vulnerable People’s Development Organization)
Latinamerikagrupperna
Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network
Lobbywatch
Lok Rajniti Manch (People’s Politics Front)
Manushya Foundation
Mass Interfaith Worker Justice
Media Alliance
Mesa Colombiana de Incidencia por las Enfermedades Crónicas
Migrant Forum in Asia
Milieudefensie
Mississippi Workers’ Center for Human Rights
Mom Loves Taiwan Association
Movement for Advancing Understanding Sustainability & Mutuality
Movimento NoTAP
Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climático (MOCICC)
National Alliance for Human Rights and Social Justice, Nepal
National Campaign for Sustainable Development – Nepal
National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women
National Hawker Federation – India
National Toxics Network
Natur og Ungdom/Young Friends of the Earth Norway
Navdanya International
NCD Alliance
NeSoVe / Network Social Responsibility
NET Africa (Natural Environment Technology in Africa)
New Brunswick Anti-Shale Gas Alliance
NGO Federation of Nepal (NFN)
NGO Forum on ADB
Nigerian Women Agro Allied Farmers Association
Nofumadores.org
North American Climate, Conservation and Environment (NACCE)
Not Here, Not Anywhere Ireland
Notre Affaire à Tous
NSC – Friends of the Earth Hungary
Nuclear Information and Resource Service
The Oakland Institute
Observatorio Universitario de Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutricional del Estado de Guanajuato
Oil Change International
ONG SANA
Orchard City Indivisible
Organic Consumers Association
Oriang Philippines
OVEC – Ohio Valley Environmental Coaliton
Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum
Pakistan Kissan Rabita Committee
Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA)
Parramatta Climate Action Network
People for a Healthy Environment
Peterborough Pollinators
Permacultura Río Puelo NGO
Philippine Movement for Climate Justice
Plataforma Boliviana Frente al Cambio Climático
Plataforma Ciudadana Zaragoza sin Fractura
Plataforma por la Alimentación Saludable. Peru
El Poder del Consumidor A.C.
Polaris Institute
Polish Ecological Club Mazovian Branch
Practical Action
Progressive Power Lab
Project on Organizing, Development, Education and Research (PODER).
Proyecto de Derechos Económicos, Sociales y Culturales (ProDESC)
PUSH Sweden
Red Nacional de Agricultura Familiar – RENAF
Red Nacional Antitabaco
Renewable Energy Alliance Lancashire
Renewables Now Loveland
Roseacre Awareness Group
Rural Women’s Association – Alga
SAFE – Safe Food Advocacy Europe
Sahabat Alam Malaysia
Salud Justa Mx
Sanlakas Philippines
Sciences Citoyennes
SEE Change Network
SEED of SW New Mexico
Share The World’s Resources
Sisters of Charity Federation
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia
Slow Food Mexico
Solidaritas Perempuan
Stamp Out Poverty
StoriesLive.org
SustainUS
Swiss Youth for Climate
Talk Fracking
Tanzania Organization for Agricultural Development (TOfAD)
Te Ara Whatu
Third World Network
Toxics Action Center
TRADENER (Trantsizio Energetikoa eta Demokrazia)
Transnational Institute
Trinity Foundation
TTIP Network Finland
UDAPT (Unión de Afectados y Afectadas por las Operaciones Petroleras de Texaco)
UDYAMA
Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development
UK Youth Climate Coalition
UKSCN (UK Student Climate Network)
United Mission to Nepal
Universidad Austral de Chile Instituto de Conservación Biodiversidad y Territorio
Upper Valley Affinity Group (Vermont)
Urgewald
Vermont Natural Resources Council (VNRC)
Vermont Public Interest Research Group (VPIRG)
Viernes por el Futuro Santiago (Fridays for Future Santiago)
Virginia Interfaith Power & Light
Vision for Alternative Development
War on Want
WomanHealth Philippines
WoMin African Alliance
World Public Health Nutrition Association
Xun Biosphere Project
Young Friends of the Earth Scotland
Youth Action Hub Guinea – CNUCED
Youth For Environment Education And Development Foundation (YFEED Foundation)
Youth On Board
Zapatas de Chile
[i] InfluenceMap. “Big Oil’s Real Agenda on Climate Change.” Influence Map. March 2019. Accessed June 05, 2019. https://influencemap.org/report/How-Big-Oil-Continues-to-Oppose-the-Paris-Agreement-38212275958aa21196dae3b76220bddc.
[ii] “The People’s Demands for Climate Justice.” The People’s Demands for Climate Justice. Accessed June 05, 2019. https://www.peoplesdemands.org/.
[iii] “Kick Big Polluters Out.” Kick Big Polluters Out. Accessed June 05, 2019. http://kickbigpollutersout.org/.
[iv] Hope, Mat. “European Parliament: Say No to Fossil Fuel Lobbying at International Climate Talks.” DeSmog UK. October 4, 2017. Accessed June 15, 2019. https://www.desmog.co.uk/2017/10/04/european-parliament-say-no-fossil-fuel-lobbying-international-climate-talks.
[v] Third World Network. “Attempts to block issue ‘conflict of interest’ policy in UNFCCC.” June 14, 2018. Accessed June 15, 2019. https://www.twn.my/title2/climate/info.service/2018/cc180602.htm.
[vi] “The People’s Demands for Climate Justice.” The People’s Demands for Climate Justice. Accessed June 05, 2019. https://www.peoplesdemands.org/.
*If you would like to add your organization’s name to this letter, please fill out this form.
