Corporate Responsibility & the Politics of Fossil Fuels
Prof. M. K. Dorsey Dartmouth College
Durban Group for Climate Justice
International Cooperation for Development to Address the Climate Change Challenge 19-20 November 2007 United Nations
degrees of
ORGANIZATIONAL (ir)RESPONSIBILITY & the politics of fossil fools/climate change
•
Reconsidering Headlines
Prof. M.K. Dorsey Dartmouth College Durban Group for Climate Justice
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• • • • • • • CLIMATE DENIERS OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• CLIMATE DENIERS
• • • • • • OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
3 April 1998…
3 April 1998…(p.3)
Denied Responsibility & Liability
• "Failing to recognize the urgency of this message [that “the effects of climate change are being felt already,”] and act on it would be nothing less that criminally irresponsible" and a direct attack on the world's poorest people, De Boer said. (13 Nov 2007)
Exxon alone paid >$200 Million $180 Million to US Congress reps. (since „89); $21 Million to “NGOs” (since‟98)
• 2006: Exxon spent $2.1 million on 41 groups who are leading the climate skeptic industry.
– Moving Newtok, a Bering Sea coast town of 315 being squished and swamped by two rivers, could cost as much as $130 million. Or $412,000
per person.
– Moving Shishmaref, a strip of sand in the Chukchi Sea that's home to about 600 people, could cost as much as $200 million. Or $330,000 per
person.
– Moving Kivalina, a shrinking barrier island in the Chukchi that last month
saw most of its 380 residents run for safety from the season's first storm, could cost as much as $125 million. Or $330,000 per person.
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• CLIMATE DENIERS
• OIL(y) PROFITEERS
• • • • • TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
Calculating Windfalls
• In the quarter ended 31st Dec 2005 ExxonMobil announced it earned $10.7 billion dollars.
– ~$115 million a day for each of the 92 days of the quarter; – ~$5 million each hour; – ~ $80,000 every minute – ~ $1350 per second
RECALLING Exxon profits $10.7 Billion $180 Million to US Congress reps. (since „89); $21 Million to “NGOs” (since‟98)
2006: Exxon spent $2.1 million on 41 groups
– Moving Newtok, a Bering Sea coast town of 315 being squished and swamped by two rivers, could cost as much as $130 million. Or $412,000
per person.
– Moving Shishmaref, a strip of sand in the Chukchi Sea that's home to about 600 people, could cost as much as $200 million. Or $330,000 per
person.
– Moving Kivalina, a shrinking barrier island in the Chukchi that last month
saw most of its 380 residents run for safety from the season's first storm, could cost as much as $125 million. Or $330,000 per person.
Tax Time
• 1983 Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act (P.L. 96-223) • Alaska Windfall Oil Profit Tax of 2006: "The [new] tax would replace Alaska's current production tax and would set a base tax rate of 22.5% of the profits of oil companies…”
(http://www.legis.state.ak.us/basis/get_bill_text.asp? hsid=SB2001B&session=24)
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• CLIMATE DENIERS • OIL(Y) PROFITEERS
• TRADING TRICKSTERS
• • • • Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
Quasi-Privatization of Existing Global Carbon Dump just in the UK Proposed National Allocation under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, 2005 Industrial Sector Annual gift of pollution rights (mtCO2) +/- Average annual emissions 1998-2003 % of „available‟ world aboveground carbon dump Approx. value @ €26/tCO2 (pre-crash)
Power
145.3
-6%
1.5-3.0
€2.180b
Iron/steel
Refineries Offshore
23.3
19.8 19.1
+16%
+11% +14%
02.-.05
02.-.04 02.-.04
350m
297m 287m
Cement
Chemicals
10.7
10.1
+18%
+12%
.01-.02
.01-.02
161m
152m
Other TOTAL
23.7 252.0
+17% +2%
.02-.05 2.6-5.1
357m
€3.780b
PRIVATIZATION OF WORLD CARBON DUMP BY THE EU
Phase 1 gift to big business (MT CO2)
2005 emissio ns
Phase 2 approved gift to big business
Increase/ decrease in gift to big business
Gift = x% of “world carbon dump” (IPCC)
Yearly value of gift @ €30/t €2.6b
€4.0b €13.6b
Yearly value of gift @ €0.15/t
Czech R
France Germany
97.6
156.5 499
82.5
131.3 474
86.8
132.8 453.1
+5%
+1% -4%
~1-2%
~1-3% ~5-9%
€13m
€20m €70m
Holland
Poland Spain Sweden
95.3
239.1 174.4 22.9
80.4
203.1 182.9 19.3
85.8
208.5 152.3 22.8
+7%
+3% -17% +18%
~1-2%
~2-4% ~2-3% <1%
€2.6b
€6.3b €4.6b €0.7b
€13m
€31m €23m €3m
UK
245.3
242.4
246.2
+2%
~3-5%
€7.4b
€37m
TOTAL EU 1815.7
1672.5 1650.7
-1%
1734%
~
€49.52b €248m
“ETS [the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme] has done nothing to curb emissions . . . is a highly regressive tax falling mostly on poor people . . . Enhances the market power of generators. Have policy goals been achieved? Prices up, emissions up, profits up . . . so, not really.”
Peter Atherton, Citigroup Global Markets, January 2007
“All generation-based utilities – winners. Coal and nuclear-based generators – biggest winners. Hedge funds and energy traders – even bigger winners. Losers . . . herm . . . Consumers!”
Ibid.
The EU ETS “has not encouraged meaningful investment in carbon-reducing technologies.”
Tony Ward, Ernst & Young, May 2006
Emissions trading “would make money for some very large corporations, but don‟t believe for a minute that this charade would do much about global warming . . . oldfashioned rent-seeking . . . making money by gaming the regulatory process.”
Wall Street Journal, 3 March 2007
“European Commissioner for Energy gives damning verdict . . . „A failure‟ . . .”
TV Channel 4 Evening News, London, lead story, 7 March 2007
“ ”
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• CLIMATE DENIERS • OIL(Y) PROFITEERS • TRADING TRICKSTERS
• Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS (The Wildcard) • LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS • REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS • MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
Select NGO Offerings…
• John Bennett Executive Director, Climate Action Network: “Our acceptance of emission trading has secured us significant allies in the Canadian business community.”
Select NGO Offerings…
• US based NRDC testifies that: • „We have no objection to nuclear power being an active participant in the effort to reduce emissions.‟
(13 Nov 2007)
Select NGO Offerings…
• John Bennett Executive Director, Climate Action Network: “Our acceptance of emission trading has secured us significant allies in the Canadian business community.”
New Revolving Door NGO Bird Flu I-4me-UR2
FOE, Greenpeace, WWF Trading Houses, etc.
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• • • • CLIMATE DENIERS OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS
So then…
TEAMS & TACTICS
• LEGAL • REGULATORY • MULTILATERAL
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• • • • CLIMATE DENIERS OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS
• LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS
• REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS • MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
LEGAL TACTICS & TEAMS • Inuit Circumpolar Conference before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in March 2007 • CIEL’s work • New lawyering, investigations, data collection
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• • • • • CLIMATE DENIERS OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS
• REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS
• MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
REGULATORY LEVEL
Regulation as the mother of all innovation • EU, NAPS suits… • Carbon Cowboy Control
– HMS Revenue investigation…
• Regulation Coordination on scale of
market coordination
7 ORGANIZATIONAL FORMS
• • • • • • CLIMATE DENIERS OIL(Y) PROFITEERS TRADING TRICKSTERS Newly Gangsterized OrganizationS LEGAL TEAMS/TACTICS REGULATORY TEAMS/TACTICS
• MULTILATERAL TEAMS/TACTICS
MULTILATERAL LEVEL • Continue shuttle diplomacy negotiations to END OIL exploration & exploitation (Ecuadorian /ITT
proposals in the lead)
• Grow Green Development Bank (Bank props up
fossil fuel projects with 15-25X MORE dollars)
– Start petroleum subsidy shifting (~15-40B/yr w/o military) – Build a CLIMATE RESCUE FUND, perhaps from windfall oil profits (not new, Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Actﾊ
(P.L. 96-223), of 1983)
• AVOID ONE SIZE FITS ALL
IN CONCLUSION
TO POZNAN, COPENHAGEN & BEYOND • • •
Dr. Michael Dorsey, Dartmouth College Professor of Global Environmental Policy michael.dorsey@dartmouth.edu
• “Climate Knowledge and Power: Tales of Skeptic Tanks, Weather Gods and Sagas for Climate (in)Justice”, Capitalism, Nature, Socialism (CNS), Vol. 18, No. 2, June 2007
•Dorsey, M.K. 2007. “Green Market Hustlers,” Foreign Policy In Focus, June 19 (Washington, DC). •Dorsey, M. K. 2007 Carbon Trading Won‟t Work. LA Times.
• Erion, G. C. S. and M. K. Dorsey. 2005. Montreal 2005 Climate Change Conference: Neoliberal BirdFlu Infects Climate Talks. The Bullet. •Dorsey, Michael K. 2005. Conservation, collusion and capital. Anthropology News Vol. 46, No. 7 (October), pp. 45-46. • Dorsey, Michael K. 2005. The case for history: Flowers for kings, capitalists, and the world system". In Serie Amazonía Siglo XXI. Carlos Soria (ed.). Lima, Peru: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Press. • Lohmann, Larry, Jutta Kill, Graham Erion and Michael K. Dorsey. 2005. “Is following the American pollution trading model a recipe for injustice in global carbon markets?” in P. Bond and R. Dada (eds.) Trouble in the Air: Global Warming and the Privatised Atmosphere (Durban, South Africa and Amsterdam, The Netherlands: University of KwaZulu Natal Press and Transnational Institute Press), pp. 149-86.
THANKS! PLEASE BE IN TOUCH… Dr. Michael Dorsey, Dartmouth College Professor of Global Environmental Policy michael.dorsey@dartmouth.edu
“If you are the big tree,We are the small axe --Sharpened to cut you down, (well sharp)” --Bob Marley