Multi-level:
Protect policymaking from polluters’ manipulation

Pass and implement conflict-of-interest policies and legislation to create the space for policymakers and public-serving actors to advance justice and real solutions free of the undue interference of corporations and those that represent them.

What does this look like?

  • Reduce the ability of polluters to advance policymaking that protects their profits by implementing measures to firewall policymaking from their interference and influence.[1][2][3][4]

  • This includes but is not limited to:

    • Instituting a firewall to end polluting industry access to decision-making processes.

    • Addressing vested or conflicting interests.

    • Ending preferential treatment of and rejecting partnerships with individuals and institutions or organizations directly or indirectly representing dirty or destructive industries.

 

 Implementing the measures of the liability roadmap

Decision-makers and movements at all levels should keep the following in mind when implementing the measures laid out in this roadmap:

  • Enacting these policies and measures is simply the first step to holding polluting and destructive industries liable: There will be much work for government officials, decision-makers, activists and civil society alike to do to ensure these measures are fully implemented and move us toward the transformative change the world needs.

  • Liability should be applied to all industries and corporations that make business decisions that contribute to climate change and its impacts, or that cause harm to people and nature. In addition to the fossil fuel industry, these industries include but are not limited to agribusiness, forestry, mining, and the energy sector. 

  • Many of these measures could equally apply to State-owned corporations. Because the national contexts and unique needs vary from country to country, it is worth considering where to apply and how to adapt the principles and measures listed in the liability roadmap to address State-owned polluting corporations. Factors to consider when doing so could include but are not limited to the degree of democratic control over the entity, role and use of funding from oil/gas revenues, and responsiveness of the entity to transition to regenerative, renewable energy sources. 

  • Measures implemented at the national level should support and reinforce, rather than contradict, measures implemented at the sub-national and local, and vice versa.

    — back to top

 

1 Hiroko Tabuchi, "‘Vulnerable Voices’ Lash Out as Companies Sway Climate Talks," The New York Times, May 16, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/16/climate/corporations-global-climate-talks-bonn-germany.html.

2 Corporate Accountability. Polluting Paris: How Big Polluters are Undermining Global Climate Policy, October 2017, accessed August 25, 2020, https://www.corporateaccountability.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/PollutingParis_COP23Report_2017.pdf.

3 “Cut Fossil Fuels out of our Politics,” Demands, Fossil Free Politics, accessed August 25, 2020, https://www.fossilfreepolitics.org/#Demands.

4 Patrick Galey, “Thousands of big energy reps at UN climate talks: monitor,” Yahoo! News, June 19, 2019, https://au.news.yahoo.com/amphtml/thousands-big-energy-reps-un-climate-talks-monitor-142443244--spt.html?_guc_consent_skip=1598296074.