International Hoax Targets US Business Consortium Amidst Bali Climate Negotiations

Cli­mate activists with the inter­na­tion­al Ris­ing Tide net­work embar­rassed the U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship (USCAP), a lob­by group com­posed of 33 promi­nent busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, by dis­trib­ut­ing a spoof press release declar­ing that the consortium’s mem­bers had com­mit­ted to a 90 per­cent reduc­tion in their green­house gas emis­sions by 2050. In addi­tion, the spoof release called for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on the con­struc­tion of all new coal-fired pow­er plants.

“To sta­bi­lize our cli­mate, reduc­tions need to be based on sci­ence, not on cre­at­ing wind­fall prof­its for the world’s largest pol­luters,” said Matt Leonard. “Lead­ing sci­en­tists say deci­sive action must hap­pen now to reduce our emis­sions. How­ev­er, cor­po­rate inter­ests have stymied sub­stan­tive action and are derail­ing gen­uine efforts of civ­il soci­ety to ade­quate­ly address cli­mate change.”

The fake press release was picked up by sev­er­al media out­lets, includ­ing the Dal­las Morn­ing News, UK Hem­scott and sev­er­al blogs before jour­nal­ists real­ized that USCAP mem­bers would nev­er agree to such pro­gres­sive reduc­tions in car­bon emis­sions or a mora­to­ri­um on coal plants. Fur­ther­more, Ris­ing Tide activists have done dozens of inter­views with media and even received calls from real USCAP mem­ber com­pa­nies about the web­site and press release.

Ris­ing Tide used the pho­ny web­site www.climateactionpartnership.org to dis­trib­ute the release, which mim­ic­ked USCAP’s site, www.us-cap.org. USCAP’s mem­bers include many of the largest US cor­po­ra­tions, includ­ing Alcoa, BP, Cater­pil­lar, Cono­coPhillips, Dow, DuPont, Ford, Gen­er­al Elec­tric, Gen­er­al Motors Corp., John­son & John­son, Pep­si­Co, PG&E, Shell and Xerox.

The hoax was timed to coin­cide with the open­ing of a major Unit­ed Nations cli­mate sum­mit in Bali in an effort to expose the dis­pro­por­tion­ate influ­ence of large cor­po­ra­tions on the cli­mate nego­ti­a­tions and the lack of ini­tia­tive from cor­po­ra­tions on reduc­ing fos­sil fuel use. Ris­ing Tide said that they will now tran­si­tion the site into an archive of envi­ron­men­tal mis­deeds and human rights abus­es of USCAP’s mem­bers.

“USCAP says it is seri­ous about stop­ping cli­mate change, but these com­pa­nies have not put their mon­ey where their mouth is,” said Bri­an Sloan of Ris­ing Tide North Amer­i­ca. “It’s time to base our poli­cies on sci­ence and the safe­ty of our com­mu­ni­ties, not on someone’s bot­tom-line.”

Ris­ing Tide is an inter­na­tion­al net­work of all vol­un­teer grass­roots activists who tar­get cor­po­ra­tions respon­si­ble both for cli­mate change and for block­ing efforts to find solu­tions to it. Activists in Aus­tralia, the U.S., Cana­da, the Unit­ed King­dom and Indone­sia par­tic­i­pat­ed in the hoax.

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SPOOF PRESS RELEASE
For Imme­di­ate Release
Decem­ber 3, 2007

Con­tacts:
Joan Adams, Par­sons & Fis­ch­er, 202–684-8097, jadams@parsonsfischer.com
Jack Esco­bar, Par­sons & Fis­ch­er, 202–683-8451, jescobar@parsonsfischer.com

Infor­ma­tion at www.climateactionpartnership.org

MAJOR US BUSINESSES ANNOUNCE COMMITMENT TO REDUCE GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS BY 90%

Wash­ing­ton, D.C., Dec. 3, 2007 — The U.S. Cli­mate Action Part­ner­ship (USCAP), a con­sor­tium of 33 promi­nent busi­ness­es and orga­ni­za­tions, announced today a com­mit­ment amongst its mem­bers to a 90% reduc­tion in green­house gas emis­sions by 2050. The announce­ment was timed to coin­cide with the open­ing of a major Unit­ed Nations cli­mate sum­mit in Bali.

“In an effort to encour­age deci­sive action in Bali this week, USCAP’s mem­bers have com­mit­ted to a 90% reduc­tion in their green­house gas emis­sions by 2050,” said Matt Leop­ard, a spokesper­son for the con­sor­tium. “This com­mit­ment should send a strong mes­sage to the assem­bled coun­tries and busi­ness­es about the type of reduc­tions need­ed to stop glob­al warm­ing.”

USCAP’s mem­bers include many US mar­ket lead­ers such as Alcoa, BP, Cater­pil­lar, Cono­coPhillips, Dow, DuPont, Ford, Gen­er­al Elec­tric, Gen­er­al Motors Corp., John­son & John­son, Pep­si­Co, PG&E, Shell and Xerox. USCAP’s goal is to fur­ther pub­lic pol­i­cy that will reduce green­house gas emis­sions and pro­tect the cli­mate.

The announce­ment from USCAP’s mem­bers also includes a mid-term com­mit­ment to reduce green­house gas emis­sions 45% from 1990 lev­els by 2020. Fol­low­ing the leads of NASA’s top cli­mate sci­en­tist James Hansen, as well as bi-par­ti­san polit­i­cal lead­ers, USCAP is also call­ing for an imme­di­ate mora­to­ri­um on the con­struc­tion of new coal-fired pow­er plants.

Toward this end, USCAP is urg­ing the US and oth­er indus­tri­al­ized nations to enact a pol­i­cy frame­work for manda­to­ry reduc­tions of green­house gas emis­sions from all sec­tors of the econ­o­my. USCAP has pro­duced a com­pre­hen­sive set of prin­ci­ples and rec­om­men­da­tions for sci­en­tif­i­cal­ly effec­tive, social­ly respon­si­ble cli­mate pol­i­cy. This doc­u­ment, titled A Call to Action1, has been released by USCAP to under­score the urgent need for a com­pre­hen­sive pol­i­cy shift on ener­gy and cli­mate.

USCAP is the first con­sor­tium of major busi­ness­es to make such a com­mit­ment in hopes that it will yield to pol­i­cy deci­sions to accel­er­ate the deploy­ment of zero-emis­sion tech­nolo­gies and ener­gy effi­cien­cy. In par­tic­u­lar, USCAP is pro­mot­ing land­mark leg­is­la­tion for a gov­ern­ment fund­ed “Sus­tain­able Job Corps.” This polit­i­cal­ly pop­u­lar pro­gram would cre­ate 5 mil­lion jobs build­ing a new pub­lic util­i­ty grid based on renew­able tech­nolo­gies, with a goal of pro­duc­ing 50% of the US ener­gy sup­ply by 2020.

“USCAP has offered a plan for the US to lead by exam­ple in efforts to pro­tect the cli­mate,” said Matt Leop­ard. “The world gov­ern­ments assem­bled in Bali this week should begin a rapid tran­si­tion to zero-emis­sion ener­gy sources and com­mit to a 90% reduc­tion from 1990 lev­els by 2050″.2

USCAP’s web­site is www.climateactionpartnership.org.

http://www.risingtidenorthamerica.org