Influencing Power - WWF UK

6 Influencing PowerIntroductionYet less talked about but even moresignificant is the amount spent on lobbyingCongress, the White House and more than200 federal agencies. This is estimated tobe over US$3 billion in 2004 — up fromUS$1.6 billion in 1998. 13 While this moneydoes not all come from the private sector —NGOs are also involved, for example — thetop amounts do. Figure 1.2 shows theamounts spent on lobbying by the top 20companies and organisations. Note thatsome of the largest amounts come fromindustry bodies — the US Chamber ofCommerce, the pharmaceuticals industryassociation, PhRMA and the BusinessRoundtable, to name a few.These figures are available because the USLobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 requiresmandatory public disclosure. In Brussels,however, where 15,000 lobbyists areestimated to represent a €60–90 millionindustry, 14 disclosure is voluntary, leavingcomprehensive figures unavailable.1.3 Background to Lobbying andCorporate ResponsibilityIn the short time since the publication ofPolitics and Persuasion, the slow drip-dripof pressure around lobbying has grown toinclude a wide range of groups concernedwith the social and environmentalperformance of the corporate sector. TheNGO community championing this agendaincludes both organisations dedicated toaddressing issues around lobbying (e.g.Corporate Europe Observatory 15 ) and othersthat have picked up the cause in recentyears, such as the Association of CharteredCertified Accountants, which promotesdisclosure on lobbying through its annualreporting awards programmes.In the US, the socially responsibleinvestment community is in the vanguardof actions aimed at driving greatertransparency of lobbying within thecorporate community. For example, in 2004alone, investor groups working with theCenter for Political Accountability filed 23shareholder resolutions calling fordisclosure of political donations. Theresolutions gained significant support frommainstream shareholders, garnering up to16% of votes at corporate annual generalmeetings. Similarly a coalition of investorgroups working with the Interfaith Centeron Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) wrote tonine of the largest pharmaceuticalcompanies in autumn 2004 asking them todisclose corporate political contributionsand their policies and procedures tomanage such contributions.Other notable initiatives include:— Investors and investment researcherssuch as Generation InvestmentManagement, KLD Research andAnalytics, Trillium Asset Managementand the UK Institutional Investors Groupon Climate Change are activelyconsidering ways to assess the approachthat companies bring to their publicpolicy activity.— The work of Greenpeace and the UK’sGreen Alliance 16 in this area, supportedby a broad coalition of NGOs andbusiness groups, has culminated in thepublication of The Private Life of PublicAffairs in 2003, 17 and instigated a letterwritingcampaign to the FTSE 100 groupof companies asking for theirperspectives on the issues the reportraises (see Panel 3.1).— NGOs such as WWF, 18 the CORECoalition 19 and Forum for the Future 20have published research intended tocatalyse action by companies and tradeassociations. The issue has also beenhighlighted a number of times in recentyears in the Lifeworth annual review ofcorporate responsibility. 21— The Institute of Business Ethics launcheda report 22 in June 2005 looking at ethicaland business issues related to lobbying.— AccountAbility and the UN GlobalCompact are developing principles toguide companies in their framing oflobbying approaches on public policyissues.— Siim Kallas, Vice-President of theEuropean Commission, launched aninitiative calling for legislation toincrease the transparency aroundlobbying of European Union institutions. 23— The Alliance for Lobbying Transparencyand Ethics Regulation (ALTER-EU) waslaunched in June 2005, with over 80 civilsociety groups calling for ‘endingcorporate privileges and secrecy aroundlobbying in the European Union’. 24In 2004 alone, investor groups workingwith the Center for Political Accountabilityfiled 23 shareholder resolutions callingfor disclosure of political donations.