Corporate Responsibility & the Politics of Fossil Fuels
Prof. M. K. Dorsey
Dartmouth CollegeDurban 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. DorseyDartmouth 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
RECALLINGExxon 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
Industrial Sector
Annual gift of pollution rights (mtCO2)
+/- Average annual emissions
1998-2003
% of ‘available’ world above-ground carbon dump
Approx. value @ €26/tCO2
(pre-crash)
Power 145.3 -6% 1.5-3.0 €2.180b
Iron/steel 23.3 +16% 02.-.05 350m
Refineries 19.8 +11% 02.-.04 297m
Offshore 19.1 +14% 02.-.04 287m
Cement 10.7 +18% .01-.02 161m
Chemicals 10.1 +12% .01-.02 152m
Other 23.7 +17% .02-.05 357m
TOTAL 252.0 +2% 2.6-5.1 €3.780b
Quasi-Privatization of Existing Global Carbon Dump just in the UKProposed National Allocation under
the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, 2005
PRIVATIZATION OF WORLD CARBON DUMP BY THE EU
Phase 1 gift to big business
(MT CO2)
2005 emissions
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
Yearly value of gift @ €0.15/t
Czech R 97.6 82.5 86.8 +5% ~1-2% €2.6b €13m
France 156.5 131.3 132.8 +1% ~1-3% €4.0b €20m
Germany 499 474 453.1 -4% ~5-9% €13.6b €70m
Holland 95.3 80.4 85.8 +7% ~1-2% €2.6b €13m
Poland 239.1 203.1 208.5 +3% ~2-4% €6.3b €31m
Spain 174.4 182.9 152.3 -17% ~2-3% €4.6b €23m
Sweden 22.9 19.3 22.8 +18% <1% €0.7b €3m
UK 245.3 242.4 246.2 +2% ~3-5% €7.4b €37m
TOTAL EU
1815.7 1672.5 1650.7 -1% ~17-34%
€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 . . . old-fashioned 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
How would you characterize emissions trading?
“Bullshit . . . stupid . . . a mockery . . . an outrageous waste of public money.”
UK Parliamentary Committee on the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, 2004
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 DoorNGO 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
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•
•
Dr. Michael Dorsey, Dartmouth College
Professor of Global Environmental Policy
• “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
“If you are the big tree,We are the small axe --Sharpened to cut you
down, (well sharp)”
--Bob Marley