BP, EDF and Procter & Gamble face pressure over climate change lobbying

Investors have written to corporate members of influential EU trade lobby groups accused of undermining action on climate change

A group of 25 investors with a61bn in assets has written to a number of multinational companies, including BP, EDF, Glencore, Johnson Matthey, Procter & Gamble, Rio Tinto, Statoil and Total asking them to justify their membership of prominent EU trade associations.

The letter, coordinated by responsible investment charity ShareAction, sets out a number of concerns about the lobbying activities of these trade groups on EU climate policy, based on research my colleagues and I carried out earlier this year. We investigated eight influential trade associations including BusinessEurope, which has argued that EU climate targets undermine industrial competitiveness, and the European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic), which has stated that strengthening the EU emissions trading system would force businesses to move overseas because of high energy costs in Europe.