Undermining Climate Action: The Fight by European Oil Companies Against the European Carbon Tax
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines, in the lead-up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the role played by five major European oil companies—BP in the United Kingdom, Shell in the Netherlands and UK, ENI in Italy, and Total and Elf in France—in scuttling the European Commission’s carbon and energy tax proposal developed within European institutions since 1989. Based on fresh material from European, national, and private business archives, the study discusses their influence on EC climate policymaking with respect to a governance tool for regulating CO2 emissions. To this end, we examine the rise of climate change as an issue on the EC political agenda, and within European oil and gas companies. This paper also explores how they cooperated with one another, and worked with several key business associations against any regulation or fiscal instrument for CO2 reductions. Lastly, this paper assesses the last stages of the battle in 1992, highlighting the arenas in the EC decision-making process targeted by the European oil sector in order to undermine the carbon tax initiative before the Earth Summit. While most historical research on climate obstruction has focused on US actors, this article is a contribution to the history of climate obstruction in Europe.
Source: The International History Review
Authors: Fabienne Jouty, Christophe Bonneuil
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4416224421