Tag: Common Dreams

German Groups Sue Major Carmakers for Fueling the Climate Emergency

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“While people suffer from floods and droughts triggered by the climate crisis, the car industry, despite its enormous contribution to global warming, seems unaffected.”

Climate Lawsuit against German Corperations
Climate Lawsuit against German Corporations

Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and Greenpeace today announced lawsuits against German corporations for failing to protect the climate. They are legally demanding that Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes significantly accelerate the climate-friendly conversion of their companies: By 2030, the three German automakers are to stop building climate-damaging internal combustion vehicles worldwide, and the oil and natural gas company Wintershall Dea must stop developing new oil and gas fields from 2026. For the first time since the landmark climate ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court, environmental associations are taking legal action against climate-damaging corporations, Greenpeace against VW, DUH against BMW, Mercedes and Wintershall Dea. The plaintiffs include the executives of the associations and the Fridays for Future activist Clara Mayer.

In this picture: Plantiff Clara Mayer, Attorney Dr. Roda Verheyen, Executive Director Greenpeace Martin Kaiser.

© Mike Schmidt / Greenpeace, 3 Sep, 2021

By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams (CC BY-ND 3.0).

A pair of climate advocacy groups on Friday announced lawsuits against BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Volkswagen for fueling the climate emergency, hoping to force the German carmakers to stop selling internal combustion vehicles and cut their carbon footprints 65% by 2030.

“With our lawsuits, we want to achieve the exit from the internal combustion engine.”

—Barbara Metz, DUH

Greenpeace Germany and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) are accusing the companies of failing to decarbonize in line with the 1.5°C temperature goal of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.

The groups addressed the legal actions during a Friday press conference, with Greenpeace targeting Volkswagen and DUH initiating proceedings against the other two carmakers as well as the fossil fuel company Wintershall Dea, aiming to prevent it from developing new oil and gas fields by 2026.

“While people suffer from floods and droughts triggered by the climate crisis, the car industry, despite its enormous contribution to global warming, seems unaffected,” said Martin Kaiser, executive director of Greenpeace Germany, in a statement.

An April 2021 ruling on climate action from Germany’s highest court “represents a mandate to quickly and effectively enforce the legal protection of our common livelihoods,” Kaiser added. “We need all hands on deck to protect our common future.”

As German broadcaster Deutsche Welle detailed:

Two lawyers—Remo Klinger and Roda Verheyen—who helped environmental activists force the German government to commit to more detailed plans of how it will reduce carbon emissions to near zero by 2050 will also represent the plaintiffs in this case, DUH said.

Following the success of the case against the government, the NGOs are hoping to pursue the precedent set by Germany’s Federal Constitution Court (BverfG) and uphold the rights of future generations.

“The BVerfG concluded in its groundbreaking climate decision that future generations have a basic right to climate protection. Large corporations are also bound by this!” the DUH said in a tweet.

Verheyen said Friday that “whoever delays climate protection harms others and thus behaves unlawfully. This is clear on the basis of the constitutional court decision, and this also and especially applies to the German car industry with its gigantic global CO2 footprint.”

“Clearly, this is not a game,” the attorney added. “Civil law can and must help us to prevent the worst effects of climate change by ordering corporations to stop emitting—otherwise they endanger our lives and deprive our children and grandchildren of the right to a safe future.”

Among the plaintiffs in the Volkswagen case is Clara Mayer of the youth climate movement Fridays for Future. Mayer declared that “climate protection is a constitutional right.”

“It is not acceptable that a company should so significantly prevent us from reaching our climate targets,” she continued. “At the moment, Volkswagen is making huge profits by producing climate-damaging cars, which we will have to pay dearly for in the form of climate consequences. The basic rights of future generations are in danger, as we are already seeing the effects of the climate crisis. The begging and pleading has come to an end, it is time to hold Volkswagen legally responsible.”

Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW “have previously announced plans to transition to producing more eco-friendly electric cars,” DW noted, “but environmentalists have said these plans are vague and nonbinding.”

The outlet also reported on carmakers’ responses to the new cases against them:

Daimler, the maker of the Mercedes-Benz brand, said it saw “no basis” for the legal action against them and that it would defend itself “through all legal means.”

BMW said in response to the announcement that it was already committed to the Paris climate agreement. Volkswagen, which owns several car brands including Audi, Porsche, and Skoda, did not comment.

Meanwhile, those behind the lawsuits warned that their actions are intended to help ensure a habitable future planet.

“It’s about the future of our children when we complain today about an end to the production of combustion cars from 2030 onwards,” said Barbara Metz, deputy federal manager of DUH.

“Like hardly any other company, BMW has blocked the exit from the internal combustion engine and a credible switch to economical, battery-electric cars,” Metz said. “While we are feeling the consequences of the climate crisis more and more clearly, BMW is constantly developing new combustion SUVs and sedans. With our lawsuits, we want to achieve the exit from the internal combustion engine that is necessary at BMW.”

Greenpeace and DUH’s moves come just before the Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA), one of the world’s largest car shows, is set to open on September 7 in Munich. German climate campaigners are planning a large march and bike ride to protest the event.

‘Trying to Have It Both Ways’: Investigation Reveals BP and Shell Still Back Anti-Climate Lobby Groups, Despite Pledges

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The Unearthed and HuffPost report reveals the companies failed to disclose membership in at least eight Big Oil lobbies in their transparency reports. 

Oil Refinery
Image by Thomas H. from Pixabay

By Brett Wilkins, staff writer, Common Dreams (CC BY-ND 3.0).

Fossil fuel giants Royal Dutch Shell and BP remain active members of numerous Big Oil lobby groups fighting against climate legislation and regulation—without disclosing this in their transparency reports—an Unearthed and HuffPost investigation revealed Monday. 

According to the report, Shell and BP—the world’s second- and fourth-largest oil companies by revenue last year—are members of at least eight industry trade organizations lobbying against climate measures in the United States and Australia.

Both companies support the “astroturf” group Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, which boasted that it had “defeated carbon pricing bills” in Oregon, and the Texas Oil & Gas Association, which is fighting regulation of the super-heating greenhouse gas methane in the nation’s largest oil-producing state. 

Shell and BP also both back the Business Council of Australia and the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, both of which are working to undercut the country’s compliance with the Paris climate agreement. Shell also remains a member of the Queensland Resources Council, which is backing construction of the world’s largest coal mine in the northeastern state. 

[Shell and BP are] trying to have it both ways, being socially responsible without changing their actual positions.”

—Robert Brulle, climate denial researcher and professor at Brown University’s Institute at Brown for Environment and Society.

The companies, which are quoted in the report, say they are trying to reform the lobby groups from the inside, and that they would review their membership in the future.

“If we reach an impasse, we will be transparent in publicly stating our differences,” BP said. “And on major issues, if our views and those of an association cannot be reconciled then we will be prepared to leave.” 

Earlier this year, both Shell and BP announced in almost identical language their “ambition” to be net-zero emissions businesses by 2050. In recent years they have also very publicly quit numerous industry trade groups that fund denial of anthropogenic climate change or that fight legislation or regulation of greenhouse gas emissions, while pledging to be more transparent about their associations with lobby groups.

While some observers have praised Shell and BP for finally taking some meaningful action to combat climate change caused by carbon emissions—which Shell’s own scientists warned about nearly 40 years ago—many climate activists say the companies’ efforts are misleading, and aren’t nearly enough to avert the worst effects of catastrophic global heating.

Last week, a report from Oil Change International stated that none of the plans or pledges from eight leading oil companies including Shell and BP even come close to aligning with the 2015 Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global warming this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Kelly Trout, a senior research analyst at OCI, likened oil companies to “an arsonist pledging to light a few less fires.” 

Robert Brulle, a climate denial researcher and professor at Brown University’s Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, accused Shell and BP of “trying to have it both ways.” 

“This is a standard business practice,” Brulle told HuffPost and Unearthed—which is Greenpeace U.K.’s investigative journalism platform. “They’re trying to have it both ways, being socially responsible without changing their actual positions.”  

Massive ‘Climate Clock’ Urging Governments to #ActInTime Unveiled on Metronome in New York City

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“The clock is a way to speak science to power,” says a project co-founder.

Photo: Zack Winestine/ The Climate Clock
Climate activists repurposed the Metronome, an art installation in New York City. (Photo: Zack Winestine/ The Climate Clock)

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer, Common Dreams (CC BY-ND 3.0).

Some advocates kicked off next week’s Climate Week NYC early Saturday by repurposing the Metronome, a famous art installation in Union Square that used to display the time of day, as a massive “Climate Clock” in an effort to pressure governments worldwide to take swift, bold action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and rein in human-caused global heating.

The clock is telling us we must reduce our emissions as much as we can as fast as we can.”

—Andrew Boyd, project co-founder

“The clock is a way to speak science to power,” project co-founder Andrew Boyd said in a statement. “The clock is telling us we must reduce our emissions as much as we can as fast as we can. The technology is there. We ​can​ do this—and in the process, create a healthier, more just world for all of us. Our planet has a deadline. But we can turn it into a lifeline.”

Launched as people across the country are facing the deadly, devastating impacts of climate change—from historic wildfires in western states to slow-moving hurricanes and the resulting floods on the Gulf Coast—the clock in New York City on Saturday warned that the international community only has seven years and 102 days to “undertake bold transformation of our energy system and economy” in hopes of keeping global temperature rise under 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Climate Change is already here. This clock is not an alarm clock saying, in seven years it will ring and we need to wake up! It’s more like a stopwatch already running that we have to keep pace with,” explained Gan Golan, the project originator. “We need to take action today, tomorrow, and the day after that. Let’s get moving. Every second counts. We need to act in time.”

A mobile climate clock that Swedish youth activist Greta Thunberg “now carries with her, as well as the larger Climate Clock project, was assembled by a team of artists, makers, scientists, and activists based in New York, and is part of the Beautiful Trouble community of projects,” according to Climateclock.world, which details the science behind the numbers displayed and how to install clocks in other cities.

“In an accompanying app, the artists include more detail about solutions,” Fast Company reported Saturday. “Another number tracks the current percentage of renewable energy in the world. An interactive tool shows how to ‘flatten the climate curve’ and how much difference it makes to invest more now, and to move more quickly. A DIY maker kit explains how to make a countdown clock of your own.”