The crisis linked to the coronavirus was an opportunity for industrial lobbies to try to soften social and environmental regulations, denounce this Wednesday two NGOs which warn against the use of public money for the benefit of these same industries. During this crisis, "the representatives of the main polluting industries - energy, air transport, the automobile, immediately mobilized [...] to obtain the abandonment, suspension or postponement of many regulations", denounce Friends of the Earth and the Observatory of Multinationals in a report.
The lobbies were not confined, # quite the contrary!
Lobbying: the hidden epidemic, or how multinationals have profited from the # covid19 crisis… #Lobbying #Coronawashing
Discover the new report from @amisdelaterre et @transnationales 👉https: //t.co/UNqaXAt0eG pic.twitter.com/ 0uWORSLS0h
The Medef, the main employers' organization in France, had asked at the end of April "a moratorium" on the implementation of environmental measures, particularly in the fight against waste and recycling, request rejected by the Minister for the Ecological Transition Elisabeth Borne. Secretary of State Brune Poirson denounced this Monday in La Provence the explosion of the use of plastic, encouraged "sometimes by messages from lobbies". "All of these lobbies were brought out by the front door during the anti-waste law that was passed last January and they are coming back out the window," she said.
Reinforce the transparency of lobbying
They were not the only ones, according to the two NGOs, who cited requests from the French Association of Private Enterprises (AFEP), from the automotive, air or agricultural sectors. For organizations, it is essential that the aid granted by the State to support polluting industries is conditioned on "a plan to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and on the planned exit from their most harmful activities".
They cite the example of the loans of seven billion euros granted to Air France, which will have to reduce certain national connections if they can be achieved in 2:30 by train, as well as reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. These routes could be “transferred to low-cost subsidiaries of Air France”, note the NGOs which also criticize the use of agrofuels which can contribute to deforestation, and to “carbon compensation” by planting trees, insufficient to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions.
For them, it is urgent to strengthen the transparency of lobbying in France, by making public, for example, meetings between decision-makers and interest representatives, by setting up an independent observatory "which ensures transparency on public aid" or still "legally binding and verified conditions" for the companies that benefit from them.
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