LONDON – A detailed and disturbing strategy document reveals an extraordinary corporate plan to destroy Europe‘s support for the Kyoto treaty on climate change. The ambitious scheme was passed to the UK‘s Independent just as 189 countries were trying to agree on the second stage of the Kyoto climate treaty at the UN climate conference in Montreal. It was pitched to companies such as Ford Europe, Lufthansa, and the German utility giant RWE.
Put together by Chris Horner, a senior official with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a group partly funded by Exxon Mobil, the plan seeks to draw together major international companies, academics, think tanks, commentators, journalists and lobbyists from across Europe into the a pressure group, the European Sound Climate Policy Coalition.
Based in Brussels, the coalition would have anti-Kyoto position papers, expert spokesmen, detailed advice and networking instantly available to any politician or company who wanted to question the wisdom of proceeding with Kyoto and its cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.
Horner describes himself as an adviser to President George Bush. His organization has received almost $1.5 million from Exxon Mobil.
