Amazon, Apple, Microsoft & Co. support lobby against US climate protection law

Leading US companies such as Amazon, Apple, Disney and Microsoft support lobby organizations that are spending millions of dollars to undermine the draft for a far-reaching US climate protection law. This emerges from a report that the civil society organization Accountable.us published on Friday. The corporations and their bosses themselves, on the other hand, like to claim to be at the forefront of the fight against climate change with goals for more sustainability and CO ₂ reduction.

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accusation of hypocrisy

Accountable.us accuses over 50 large companies of hypocrisy, claiming that they are active members of lobby institutions that are massively opposing the budget package promoted by President Joe Biden and the Democrats in the US Congress announced that it will spend around 3.5 trillion US dollars, which observers consider to be the “biggest law against climate change to date” It includes a program to promote renewable energies worth US $ 150 billion that would facilitate the switch from utilities to wind, solar and hydropower However, what is controversial in the EU will also be funded.

The authors of the analysis refer to it about the oath of the US Chamber of Commerce “to do everything we can to prevent this tax-increasing and job-destroying” law from being passed. The association’s board of directors includes executives from companies such as Microsoft, Intuit, United Airlines, Delta and Deloitte, all of whom have expressed concern about climate change and have announced that they will take countermeasures.

Lobbyists: Biden agenda “overturned in every imaginable way”

Another economic alliance, the Business Roundtable, has ” expressed deep concern “about the package known as the” Law of Reconciliation “as it would, among other things, raise taxes on the rich. The organization includes company directors such as Tim Cook from Apple,

who has called for governments and companies to take stronger measures to combat the climate crisis . Other members include Andy Jassy, ​​the new boss of Amazon, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, and Darren Woods, boss of the oil giant Exxon.

The Pharmaceutical Research Group and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), which includes Bayer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, has run ads attacking the bill, according to the investigation. The Rate Coalition, which includes AT&T, Disney, FedEx, UPS and Verizon among its members, is also planning an advertising campaign to prevent the coronavirus recovery initiative. The declared aim of the National Association of Manufacturers, in which Dow, Goodyear and SchneiderElectric are involved, is to overturn the Biden agenda “in every possible way”.

No comment from those involved

The Guardian asked a large number of the companies mentioned for a comment . According to the newspaper, none of them wanted to criticize the attitudes of the respective lobby groups to which they belong. No member had declared that the connections to these lobby associations would be checked.

This is in contrast to public commitments to climate protection. Jeff Bezos, who is one of the richest people in the world, officially considers the climate crisis to be “the greatest threat to ours.” Planet “. The trading giant Amazon he founded has committed to zero its emissions by 2040 and to become climate neutral . Microsoft has promised

to be “carbon negative” in a decade . Disney intends to only use electricity from renewable energy sources within the same period.

US Democrats at odds over Biden’s climate ambitions

Kyle Herrig, President of Accountable.us, complained that the companies were hiding behind “shady groups” and financed the resistance against the legislative package behind closed doors. In doing so, they not only endanger the environment massively, but also their own reputation.

The Biden and the Democrats’ project is currently at a critical point. The opposition Republicans unanimously oppose it. There are also dissenters in their own ranks, such as Senator Joe Manchin, who thinks the draft is nonsensical and wants to maintain the existing subsidies for coal, oil and gas. Biden’s climate ambitions suffered a setback in the summer. With a first infrastructure package the President had to make a compromise , because the Republicans did not like the climate protection measures contained. Now the second basket should fix it. Environmental organizations and scientists, however, does not go far enough.

( tiw )