The
World Development Movement's report Web of Power cites reluctance of City's
vested interests to invest in low carbon fuels
The Guardian, Terry Macalister, Sunday 10 March 2013
Close links between senior government ministers and the oil industry risk perpetuating dependence on a high carbon energy policy which is pushing the planet to the brink of climate catastrophe, a report has warned.
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| Oil companies' political connections blocks flow of investment in low-carbon forms of energy. Photograph David Mcnew/Getty Images |
Close links between senior government ministers and the oil industry risk perpetuating dependence on a high carbon energy policy which is pushing the planet to the brink of climate catastrophe, a report has warned.
The
World Development Movement (WDM) believes that up to a third of all coalition
ministers may have past or present links with fossil fuel companies or with
financial and services companies supporting oil or gas projects.
The
WDM's report, Web of Power, also highlights the revolving door between oil
companies and the big banks, with many executives sitting on the boards of both
at the same time.
This,
WDM said, perpetuates the City of London's vested interest in the status quo
and breeds a reluctance to invest in low-carbon forms of energy such as wind
power. Most of the links between ministers and carbon companies are revealed by
the politicians themselves in their register of interests or elsewhere, but WDM
said it was surprised and alarmed at the scale of the connections.
Among
the top coalition names to have worked for Shell or other petroleum producers
are the business secretary, Vince Cable, foreign secretary William Hague and
international development minister Alan Duncan. The education secretary,
Michael Gove, is among those who have received financial backing from people
connected with hydrocarbons – in this case Aidan Heavey, the boss of Tullow
Oil. Greg Barker, energy and climate change minister, was formerly employed at
the Russian oil business Sibneft, while Maria Miller, secretary of state for
culture, was on the staff at Texaco and Alan Robathan, a defence minister, was
at BP.
On top
of this, education minister Elizabeth Truss was a commercial manager at Shell
while Robert Goodwill, who works in the government whips' office, holds shares
in Russian oil and gas companies Lukoil and Gazprom.
"If
we are to move away from a high carbon economy, the government must break this
nexus and regulate the finance sector's investment in fossil fuel energy,"
said the campaigning group, which claims the top UK banks underwrote £170bn in
bonds and share issues for fossil fuel companies between 2010 and 2012.
WDM
shows a huge number of cross-connections between the energy companies and the
banks that fund much of their operations. RBS, still 82% owned by the British
taxpayer and a leading funder of fossil fuel projects, has Sir Philip Hampton
as chairman. Hampton was formerly finance director at British Gas and at oil
and gas explorer BG.
Another
RBS non-executive director, Brendan Nelson, is chairman of the audit committee
of BP and a former chairman for international services at accountant KPMG.
Meanwhile, Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, is a non-exec at HSBC bank
while Standard Chartered bank has ex-Shell director Paul Skinner on the board
along with Om Prakash Bhatt, who holds a similar position on the board of
India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
Alex
Scrivener, a WDM campaigner, said he believes a third of government ministers
have links to either the fossil fuel industry or the financial sector companies
that bankroll it. "While the direct influence of fossil fuel companies is
an obvious problem, the financial sector lobby also has a strong vested
interest in ensuring the government allows unfettered investment in dirty
energy to continue. Many of the City financiers donating to senior politicians
depend on fossil fuel investments for their profitability," he said.
Scrivener
highlighted donations to the shadow cabinet from accounting firms such as KPMG
and Deloitte, both of which have dedicated oil and gas departments and get a
lot of business from fossil fuel companies. "We desperately need
regulation to stop banks and other investors ploughing billions into
unsustainable fossil fuels – will this happen when government, big finance and
big oil are so closely intertwined?"
The
Guardian contacted Cable, Hague and others mentioned in the report for comment
but had received no reply by the time of going to press.
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