In response today’s debate on Bill C-12 in the House of Commons, and questions over whether fossil fuel executives and lobbyists should be barred from the bill’s climate accountability advisory body, Amara Possian, Canada Campaign Director with 350.org issued this statement;
“Denying the scale or existence of the climate crisis, or lobbying to undermine climate action should absolutely disqualify someone from serving on a climate accountability advisory body. In Canada, that means excluding fossil fuel lobbyists and executives since they’ve spent most of the past three decades working against climate action.”
Possian pointed to the involvement of Canadian fossil fuel companies in well documented climate denial schemes, as well as the role of fossil fuel lobbyists in weakening climate and environmental legislation through both the Harper and Trudeau administrations. Most recently, Canada’s fossil fuel executives drafted a secret memo on strategies to use the COVID-19 pandemic to roll back climate protections and advance their interests. She added;
“There are plenty of energy industry experts who don’t profit off of denying and delaying climate action. Unions and workers’ organizations are more than capable of representing fossil fuel workers. The lobbyists and executives who have spent billions of dollars opposing climate action gave up their right to a seat when they made the decision to undermine action on the defining crisis of our generation”.
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Contact: Cam Fenton, [email protected], 604-369-2155