Renewable Revolution

 
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Mon, Jun 14, 2021



Last week, Change the Chamber, a student-led coalition of 100+ youth groups supported by more than two dozen national climate organizations, sent an open letter to companies still paying dues to be part of the Chamber of Commerce, calling on them to leave the trade group if it doesn’t stop lobbying against climate action.

The letter highlights the “two unacceptable risks” created by companies that support the Chamber, given its lobbying on climate. First is the obvious risk the warming planet poses to their bottom line as extreme weather complicates supply chains and drought, fires and other extreme weather events upend years-long corporate plans. The second is the reputational risk posed by their membership in the anti-climate-policy-lobby-group.

“Youth, journalists, civil society groups, shareholders, and consumers are increasingly turning their attention to how trade associations play a 😈 key role in diluting science-based climate action. Prominent brands that fund obstructionist lobbying groups,” the letter warns, “will ultimately be held to account.”

But wait, some might say the Chamber has already improved! After all, in the past couple years it’s acknowledged climate change, and totally changed its approach to politics (by subverting democracy and protecting polluters) so shouldn’t they just get the benefit of the doubt?

Mmmm, no, not really- “even Royal Dutch Shell recently critiqued the U.S. Chamber” the letter explains, because the lobby group hasn’t even bothered to state a position on net zero or nature-based carbon-capture policies, or make statements in support of carbon pricing, or against weakening fuel economy standards set by California.

Yes, that's an oil company’s assessment that the Chamber’s supposedly pro-climate position is nothing more than words on a website.

The Change the Chamber letter links to a list of the business lobby’s most recent actions to obstruct climate action. They have 10 different 😈 examples of the Chamber of Commerce filing legal briefs in favor of polluters like Enbridge, pleading for more coal use, lobbying against Biden’s agenda with API, and making statements against climate-friendly decisions.

The kicker is that the 10 examples are all just from the first quarter of 2021. In just a handful of months, the US Chamber of Commerce  🦖🐍 has repeatedly proven its loyalty is to polluters. 

As such, the letter calls on companies to make their own statements to distinguish themselves from the Chamber’s position. It also requests meetings with the companies to pressure them to support climate action or leave the 🦖👿🐍 Chamber.

And that’s really where it’s headed, because clearly the Chamber is more interested in looking like it’s changing on climate change than it is actually changing its position. So as Senator Whitehouse said, “Change the Chamber or QUIT the Chamber” because “We need climate action NOW.”