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https://climateinvestigations.org/the-climate-change-countermovement-brown-university-report-and-panel/

The Climate Change Countermovement: Brown University Report and Panel

Climate Investigations Center on February 28, 2019

Kert Davies

Earlier this month, CIC’s Kert Davies was an invited speaker at a collaborative conference held at Brown University on the economic impacts of climate change and the opposition to policy advances. The day long event, America’s Climate Change Future: Housing Markets, Stranded Assets, and Entrenched Interests, gathered experts on a range of climate change topics ranging from increased flood risk and stranded assets in fossil fuels, to the climate change countermovement and misinformation campaigns.

Alongside keynote speaker Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and Brown professor Timmons Roberts, Davies participated in a discussion on a recently published paper by Justin Farrell of Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. The paper’s focus on the “institutional and corporate structure of the climate change countermovement” helped shaped a discussion which outlined the existing body of research the paper built on.

The panelists examined the corporate genesis of the climate denial movement and the many methods of influence that have been utilized to stall effective climate change policy. Using documents and analysis found on Climate Files, Davies recounted how the largest oil majors, including Shell and Exxon, had extensive internal knowledge about climate change science and impacts decades before it became a topic of global concern. Rather than addressing the threat that their product posed to the world, the documents show that the fossil fuel industry engaged and funded a climate change countermovement to deny the urgency their own scientists knew to be true.

See video below of the full session with Davies, Senator Whitehouse and professor Roberts called, “Pushing Against Climate Denial and Defending Science.”

Brown University: New Report on Climate Change Countermovement

Brown University’s Climate Development Lab recently released a supplemental report titled Countermovement Coalitions: Climate Denialist Organizational Profiles tracking the affiliations and output of twelve organizations that “engaged in public misinformation campaigns about climate change” from 1989 to present day. Collaborating with CIC and drawing from Climate Files, ExxonSecrets, and other resources, the report highlights the coalitions’ “insular nature,” showing many to “share leadership teams, major donors, key members, and mission statements.” The twelve organizations highlighted by the Brown team are:

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Coalition_for_Affordable_and_Reliable_Energy

Coalition for Affordable and reliable Energy (CARE) states that it is "A broad coalition of organizations representing thousands of businesses and individuals that support the development of a sound energy policy for America."

Its members include ultra-conservative groups such as the 60 Plus Association, Americans for Tax Reform and Frontiers of Freedom Institute, as well as powerful lobbying groups such as Edison Electric Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, the National Mining Association, the National Restaurant Association, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Its publicity firm is Dittus Communications.

The Annenburg Public Policy Center of the Univesity of Pensylvania says CARE formed "in 2000 to advocate coal as an energy source (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 14, 2001). CARE targets legislators in Washington, D.C. with a "pro-coal" message (Time Magazine, May 7, 2001). In addition to endorsing coal as an energy source, CARE promotes coal as a clean-burning fuel when modern technologies are used to process coal for energy. "The coalition wants more federal research to develop technologies that would allow factories, power plants, and others to burn coal with fewer smog-causing emissions" (Calgary Herald, May 11, 2001)."[1]

For the year 2004-4, the Center estimated that CARE "spent approximately $533,000 during the 108th Congress on legislative issue advertising." It collected a total of 50 print ads sponsored by the CARE during the 108th Congress. [2]

A complete list of CARE's members can be found at its webpage [3].

The website also features information on legislation of interest to the coalition.

Contact Information:

50 F Street, N.W., Suite 5300

Washington, DC 20001

Phone: 202.639.2802

Email: contact@careenergy.com

Fax:202.639.2803

Website: http://www.careenergy.com/