“On the menu or at the table”: Corporations and climate change

Abstract

“Another World Is Possible!” announces a placard held by a demonstrator on an unspecified global justice movement protest. The photograph is the background graphic of an advert. Above it the Shell logo. The advert is for a conference sponsored by the oil giant, entitled “Climate Change: Is Business Doing Enough?”

Not so long ago Shell denied climate change altogether. In 1989 it set up the Global Climate Coalition along with several dozen other fossil fuel, vehicle and chemical companies. The avowed aims were to sow doubt about scientific claims concerning global warming and to forestall political efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The coalition invested heavily in public relations campaigns warning that efforts to reduce emissions by restricting the burning of fossil fuels were misguided and would cause economic disaster. Its efforts helped to put policy making on climate change on hold for years.