Climate action: the latest target of Europe's fossil fuel lobbyists

Fossil fuel firms are making good use of the many revolving doors available to them in Brussels

Picture the scene: a dinner for MEPs organised by leading fossil fuel firms to explain the lengths to which their industries have gone to combat climate emergency. On the guest list, the environment minister of Croatia, current holders of the EU's rotating presidency, and Guido Bortoni, an adviser in the European commission's energy directorate. Nobody at all from civil society or the NGO sector. In other words a perfect Brussels lobbying event.

Billed as "Oil and Gas and the Green Deal" this dinner took place on 17 February, just a fortnight before the unveiling of the EU's first ever climate law. The meal was sponsored by the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), which represents 29 of Europe's main fossil fuel operators, including Total, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil.