How corporations rule Part 4: Anglo American’s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions

The report argues that Anglo American and other dirty energy corporations have 'captured' climate policy-making, particularly within the UNFCCC, to protect their business models. It highlights the severe social and environmental damage caused by the El Cerrejón coal mine in Colombia, including water scarcity and the displacement of indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities. The document details Anglo American's use of a 'web of influence'—including memberships in groups like the ICC, WBCSD, and EUROMINES—to lobby for market-based mechanisms such as carbon trading and carbon capture and storage (CCS), which the authors term 'false solutions'. It concludes by calling for the removal of corporate privileged access to climate negotiations, the end of public subsidies for dirty energy, and increased lobby transparency.

• The El Cerrejón open-pit coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia, causes severe environmental and social harm, including the appropriation of communal water sources and the displacement of indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and peasant communities.
• Anglo American employs Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies and 'greenwashing' projects to mask the structural causes of socio-environmental conflicts and effectively privatize public policy making.
• The report identifies 'false solutions' as policies that create business opportunities for the financial sector and corporations through technical fixes and offsetting rather than cutting emissions at the source.
• Anglo American exerts significant influence over the UNFCCC, exemplified by its 'leadership role' at COP17 in South Africa and its participation in the 'International Coal and Climate Summit' at COP19.
• The company operates through a 'web of influence' consisting of various trade associations and lobby groups to promote regressive climate policies and market-based mechanisms.
• The report argues that the UNFCCC has been transformed from a democratic forum into a space for creating corporate-friendly policies, failing to address the root causes of climate change due to corporate capture.

APA

Ortiz, L., Sabido, P., Tansey, R., Forero, L. F., Urrea, D., & Shaw, S. (2014). How corporations rule Part 4: Anglo American’s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-foei-corporate-capture-report-eng-lr.pdf

Chicago

Ortiz, Lúcia, Pascoe Sabido, Rachel Tansey, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Danilo Urrea, and Sara Shaw. How corporations rule Part 4: Anglo American’s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions. Friends of the Earth International, 2014. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-foei-corporate-capture-report-eng-lr.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ortiz |first1=Lúcia |last2=Sabido |first2=Pascoe |last3=Tansey |first3=Rachel |last4=Forero |first4=Lyda Fernanda |last5=Urrea |first5=Danilo |last6=Shaw |first6=Sara |title=How corporations rule Part 4: Anglo American’s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=November 2014 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-foei-corporate-capture-report-eng-lr.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ortiz2014how, author = {Ortiz, Lúcia and Sabido, Pascoe and Tansey, Rachel and Forero, Lyda Fernanda and Urrea, Danilo and Shaw, Sara}, title = {{How corporations rule Part 4: Anglo American’s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2014}, month = nov, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/17-foei-corporate-capture-report-eng-lr.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }