Two degrees Celsius. Maybe 1.5 degrees, if we’re being conservative. That’s our ‘carbon budget’ according to the consensus among climate change scientists, UN negotiators and several scientific organizations around the world. Our carbon budget is the amount our earth’s temperature can safely rise relative to pre-industrial levels before we pass the environmental tipping point. If we pass this threshold, low-level islands could sink, global agricultural production could decrease and a major chunk of animal species could face extinction--and there’s no going back. Scientists largely agree that these effects would be the result of human CO2 emissions. According to several peer-reviewed scientific journals, 97 percent of climate change scientists agree that climate change trends over the past century have been anthropogenic, or caused by humans.
To respond to this issue, world leaders are gathering at the highly-anticipated COP21 climate summit taking place in Paris. The international community has set high expectations for the conference, as leaders hope to create a multilateral agreement that will prevent us from rising above our carbon budget. Yet, the involvement of many major corporations at the conference may subvert meaningful action through greenwashing, a marketing tool used by companies to make themselves appear ‘environmentally friendly’ only to disguise their environmentally destructive practices and earn a spot at the negotiating table.
The automobile industry, for example, has been a greenwashing recidivist. Volkswagen has marketed their cars as climate friendly for years, touting their high MPG ratings and the efficiency of their diesel cars. Yet, the high-profile class action lawsuits recently filed against the German giant demonstrate this may not have always been the case. On Sept. 18, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) alleged that Volkswagen had been cheating on their emissions tests since 2008 by installing a ‘defeat device’ in their diesel engine cars. Similar, albeit smaller, cases dealing with ‘defeat devices’ have been filed against several auto manufacturers since the ‘70s, including General Motors, Honda, and Ford. These corporations were, for all intents and purposes, lying to regulators and customers about how much their products were polluting, prioritizing private profit over the sustainability of our earth.
Similarly, many large corporations notorious for their polluting are sponsoring the COP21 talks, an act of greenwashing itself. Two of France’s largest utilities, Engie and EDF, together own more than 40 coal fired power plants and emit almost as much CO2 as the entire country of Belgium; both are major sponsors of the summit, according to the Financial Times. Even more alarming, major oil companies have been able to participate in these discussions through trade groups and NGO’s that are deemed “non-profit”, despite their strong ties and direct sponsorship from for profit corporations. As Patti Lynn, executive director of Corporate Accountability International said, “Inviting some of the world’s biggest polluters to pay for the Paris climate summit is akin to hiring a fox to guard a hen house.”
What’s more, not only are many of these major polluting corporations wielding influence at the COP21 conference in in Paris, but they are also pushing against climate change legislation elsewhere. According to influencemap.org, about half of the largest 100 companies in the world are pursuing lobbying or advertising strategies intended to oppose climate policy. These companies have been actively working to slow climate legislation to further their own interests. As many powerful special interests profit by slowly destroying our environment, they have all the incentive to fight climate preserving policies every step of the way.
Terlep is a senior political science major from Naperville, Illinois; Piggins is a senior economics major from Saugatuck, Michigan.
