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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERAccused variously of ‘scientific activism’ or of being overly beholden<strong>to</strong> powerful government interests, the IPCC has worked relentlessly <strong>to</strong>consolidate, update, and communicate knowledge about humaninducedclimate change, in spite of intense political pressures. Theseefforts earned the IPCC the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (shared with formerUS Vice President turned climate campaigner, Al Gore).In contrast, an array of foot-draggers and deniers, ranging fromgenuine opponents <strong>to</strong> self-serving lobbyists, have put up a determinedopposition. The Global Climate Coalition (GCC), set up in 1989 bythe energy and au<strong>to</strong>motive industries, opted for tactics employed bythe <strong>to</strong>bacco lobby – one of whose lobbyists had the private slogan‘doubt is our product’ – <strong>to</strong>, in the words of one leaked internal memo,‘reposition global warming as theory rather than fact’. Its most importantvic<strong>to</strong>ry was perhaps the US Senate’s 95-<strong>to</strong>-0 vote in 1997 <strong>to</strong> oppose USparticipation in any agreement (i.e. the Kyo<strong>to</strong> Pro<strong>to</strong>col) that imposedmanda<strong>to</strong>ry greenhouse gas reductions on the USA.The GCC ran a $13m advertising campaign against Kyo<strong>to</strong> (‘It’s notGlobal and it won’t work’), arguing it would damage competitivenessand unfairly let China and other developing countries ‘off the hook’. 236Eventually the accumulation of evidence led BP <strong>to</strong> resign from theGCC in 1996, <strong>to</strong> be followed by Shell and Ford. In 2002, the coalitionclosed down, but its legacy is a public debate in the USA (the world’slargest emitter) that lags years behind that in Europe. Precious yearshave been wasted that increase both the urgency and difficulty ofresponding and the damage that is already under way. 237On the other side of the debate, environmental and, increasingly,development organisations have been joined by some unusual alliesfrom the private sec<strong>to</strong>r. Some business sec<strong>to</strong>rs with 30-year investmenthorizons, such as pension funds or oil companies, naturallythink along a longer timescale than the four-year elec<strong>to</strong>ral cycles of manypoliticians. The banking, insurance, and reinsurance industries meanwhilehave become alarmed at the spiralling costs of environmentaldisasters, or interested in the potential returns from climate-friendlyenergy sources, technologies, and production systems. Other longterminves<strong>to</strong>rs fear another type of ‘climate risk’, namely the risk tha<strong>to</strong>il companies and others responsible for climate change could laythemselves open <strong>to</strong> future litigation, along similar lines <strong>to</strong> the418

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