Update 5/4/20:Last week, JPMorgan Chasedisclosedthat it will appoint a new lead independent director to replace former ExxonMobil Chair and Lee Raymond by summer 2020. This move is asignificant victoryfor shareholder advocates and climate activists—including UCS supporters and allies in theStop the Money Pipelinemovement—who have campaigned for Raymond’s removal. The next step is for JPMorgan Chase to remove the architect of fossil fuel industry climate deception campaigns from its board altogether.
This year’s Earth Week occurs at a time when the cracks in our economic system are becoming painfully clear. At the same time, fossil fuel companies are seeking totake advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as fenceline communities adjacent to fossil fuel facilities now facedisproportionate riskof COVID-19 in addition to the health impacts of fossil fuel pollution.
That’s why it’s so important to shine a spotlight on their activities right now—and to demand that the economy that emerges from this crisis works for people and the planet, not politicians and polluters. And that’s exactly what youth activists and their adult allies are doing withEarth Day Live.
地球日的第二天生活关注的结局the financing of the climate crisis, a campaign coordinated by theStop the Money Pipelinecoalition. Fossil fuel companies are undoubtedly responsible for polluting our air and water. Yet their actions would not be possible without the banks, investors, and insurers that prop them up. That’s why we’ve joined with the coalition to demand that fossil fuel funders stop writing blank checks to the companies driving us to climate disaster, and why we’re watching how big investors like BlackRock and Vanguard vote at upcoming fossil fuel company shareholder meetings onclimate-critical shareholder resolutions.
Here are six reasons not to trust fossil fuel companies or their financiers, and to join the mobilization on Thursday, April 23:
1)他们还摧毁了the climate
Emissions from burning fossil fuels are themain driver of climate change. Swift and deep reductions in global warming emissions are necessary to avoid the worst effects of climate change. (Not the type of reductions we’re experiencing due to the painful cutbacks in economic activity related to the COVID-19 pandemic, but planned and sustained declines to protect the climate and public health).
2) They pollute communities and harm people’s health
Not only is this the 50thanniversary of Earth Day, it is also the 10thanniversary of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. The explosion killed eleven people and caused the largest oil spill in the history of human oil drilling operations, spewingfour million barrelsof oil into the Gulf of Mexico over the course of 87 days.
In commemoration of the deadly spill, our partners at the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy (GCCLP) organized a#BP10 convergence组织国家、地区和盟国的支持behind a Gulf South frontline. Join the commemoration by posting “We can’t afford a polluting economy” messages onsocial media.
You can also learn more about the impacts of the oil industry on Indigenous people of Louisianahere, and about the dangers to workers posed by a Trump administration rollback of offshore oil rig safety ruleshere.
3) They deceived us for decades
Since at least the mid-1960s, major fossil fuel companies have known about the threat their products pose to the global climate. Not only did they fail to adapt their business models for a carbon-constrained world, theyconceived and funded deliberate campaignsto deceive the public and block climate action.
4) They’re still greenwashing
Sure, they’ve gotten better at paying lip service to the Paris Climate Agreement and talking about cutting emissions, butnoneof the largest investor-owned fossil fuel companies has committed to reach net zero emissions from its operations and from the use of its products by 2050.
BPandShellare starting to talk about net zero, but when you read the fine print, they don’t get there.ExxonMobilandChevrondon’t even bother—in fact, they push back on the notion of taking responsibility for emissions that result from people using their products exactly as the companies intend them to be used.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, some major fossil fuel companies are makingcharitable contributionsandstepping up productionof much-needed medical supplies. These welcome donations amount to millions of dollars. And at the same time, fossil fuel companies’ largesse during this crisis must be weighed against the harm they cause to people, communities, and the environment and the costs they impose through pollution,subsidies, and (in some cases)tax evasion.
5) They let trade groups do their dirty work
The largest fossil fuel companies in the United States retainmembership and leadership rolesin the American Petroleum Institute (API), the largest trade group for the oil and gas sector in the United States. Right now, API is using the COVID-19 pandemic to lobby forbailoutswith no guarantee the money will reach laid-off workers or affected communities and forregulatory rollbacksthat willdisproportionately harm communities of color.
BP, ExxonMobil, and Shellhave distanced themselves from one or more specific climate-related stances taken by API. But to date, no major oil and gas company has admitted that API’s advocacy runs counter to stated company positions and, on that basis, severed ties with the group. BothBPandShelldecided to stay in API after reviewing their trade associations’ climate lobbying this year. (US oil and gas majors Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil refuse even to publish reports on their trade associations’ climate policy alignment).
One of the fossil fuel industry’s other attack dogs is the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), which has wielded the power of itsbroad corporate membershiptofight climate actionfor decades. Obstruction of climate policy by trade groups such as NAM is one of the reasonsUCS joined with ten other organizationsto call on US companies to align their climate lobbying with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
In the guise of its ironically named Manufacturers Accountability Project, NAM is going after cities and counties that aresuing to hold the fossil fuel industry accountablefor climate damages. Amid reports that energy companies may be trying toslip a liability waiverinto COVID-19 relief packages, watchdogging the activities of trade associations and other industry groups and holding their members accountable is more important than ever.
6) They delay and block climate action while fueling the climate crisis
Major fossil fuel companies continue to drag their feet, even in the face of divestment commitments topping$12 trillionand mounting pressure from climate-conscious investors through theClimate Action 100+initiative.
Chevron and ExxonMobil have even succeeded inblocking shareholdersfrom voting on proposals asking them to report on how they are meeting climate goals, and (notwithstanding itsrecent announcementof updated climate targets) Shell isopposing a shareholder resolutioncalling on the company to align with the Paris Agreement’s global temperature goal.
While fending off concerned shareholders, fossil fuel company executives are staying cozy with the Trump administration. Earlier this month (as most of the country sheltered in place), CEOs Darren Woods of ExxonMobil and Mike Wirth of Chevron joined their counterparts from other oil and gas companies and API at an in-personWhite House meetingwith President Trump seeking access to COVID-19 relief programs. Did Woods and Wirth take this opportunity to push back on the Trump administration’s decision towithdrawthe United States from the Paris Climate Agreement? Doubtful.
Stop the Money Pipeline
It’s time to send a message to fossil fuel companies in the language they understand best: money. That’s why Earth Day Live actions this Thursday, April 23, focus on the banks, insurers, and asset managers fueling the climate crisis. Led by JPMorgan Chase, major private sector banks around the world continue to finance and underwrite the fossil fuel industry—totaling a whopping $2.7 trillion since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015. JPMorgan Chase’s “lead independent director” isLee Raymond,architectofclimate deceptioncampaigns by ExxonMobil and its predecessor Exxon during his tenure as the companies’ Chair and CEO from 1993 to 2005. (Read more in my recentbloghighlighting key findings from theBanking on Climate Change 2020report.)
And large investors BlackRock and Vanguardvoted overwhelmingly againstclimate-critical shareholder resolutions in 2019. At least 16 of these resolutions—including three at ExxonMobil—would have received majority support if these two largest asset managers had voted for them.
As part ofEarth Day Live, join the campaign to end the financial sector’s complicity in fossil fuel-driven climate chaos. You can start by demanding that BlackRock vote climate denier Lee Raymond off JPMorgan Chase’s board—take action here.