Archived press release

Cbi "playing a dirty game"

14 November 2003

BUSINESS LOBBYING AGAINST RULES TO PROTECT PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

UK business leaders are today (Mon 17) being criticised for rejecting calls for new legislation to make companies accountable for their impact on the environment and society. The attack, from the environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth, comes as the first full day of the Confederation of British Industry's (CBI) annual conference gets underway in Birmingham, with leaders from both the World Trade Organisation and the European Parliament as key speakers.

The CBI, led by its Director, Digby Jones, has consistently lobbied against rules that would make UK companies improve their social and environmental performance - ranging from encouraging climate change by opposing a business tax on greenhouse gases; trying to prevent companies being legally liable for pollution, including oil spills such as the Prestige tanker disaster and refusing to acknowledge the negative impact of road and airport expansion.

Friends of the Earth's Corporate Accountability Campaigner Craig Bennett said:

"As Director of the CBI Digby Jones waxes lyrical about the need for World Trade Organisation rules and regulations to protect the vested interests of "fat cat" companies. Yet when laws are called for to protect people and the environment from being exploited by the commercial world he lobbies furiously against regulations, claiming the voluntary approach will work. It is totally hypocritical."

The CBI, the UK's most powerful industry lobby group, has described the role it plays as a "continuing …struggle with the ever-growing cumulative cost of environmental legislation covering areas such as climate change, pollution and water"[2]. In recent years, it has [3]:

• opposed the Climate Change Levy (a tax on businesses for their greenhouse emissions), which encourages greater energy efficiency and could help wean the UK off fossil fuels and on to energy efficiency technologies

• helped establish the aviation lobby group Freedom to Fly which is pushing for airport expansion and trying `to speed up the approval of major infrastructure projects…for projects like Heathrow Terminal 5" despite huge local protest and the massive environmental implications

• continued to lobby for more roads and boasts that "…continued CBI pressure has been reflected in government spending (2001/2)…the Highways Agency budget for roads is 1.5bn, an increase of 12%'.⁵While Europe forges ahead with an integrated rail network, the CBI helps reduce the competitiveness of rail transport by "securing reductions in fuel duty (1.6bn) and vehicle excise duty, especially for lorries (0.3bn)".

• lobbied against laws to hold companies liable for pollution, including oil spills such as the Prestige tanker disaster in Spain last year.

Friends of the Earth has detailed examples of UK companies putting profits before people and the environment [4] and is a founding member of The Corporate Responsibility (CORE) Coalition along with Amnesty International (UK), Christian Aid, New Economics Foundation, Traidcraft, Unison and others. CORE is campaigning for changes to UK company law such as placing a legal duty on all company directors to have a "Duty of Care" to the environment and stakeholders [5].

Karen Leach of Birmingham Friends of the Earth said:

"I have a simple question for fellow Brummie Digby-Jones. What is he going to do about those companies that don't voluntarily improve their social and environmental performance? He seems to have no answer to this."

"The fact is that many of the CBI's members are putting the boot into planet earth in a game of a football that has no rules. It's high time the Government showed the red card and forced UK plc to behave."

Notes

The CBI 2003 Annual Conference is being held at Birmingham's International Convention Centre (ICC) from 16^th-18^th November 2003. More information is available at www.cbi.org.uk

[2] CBI steps up fight over chemicals law, 8 August 2003 www.cbi.org.uk

[3] More examples of the CBI protecting its members' vested interests are available at: www.foe.co.uk/resource/reports/exposed_bournemouth_2003.pdf (PDF†)

[4]see www.foe.co.uk/campaigns/corporates/case_studies/index.html

[5] For more information on the CORE Coalition, see
www.corporate-responsibility.org/

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust