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

This report by Friends of the Earth International, Corporate Europe Observatory, and the Transnational Institute examines how the British-South African corporation Anglo American uses its political influence and lobbying networks to protect its coal business and promote 'false climate solutions' while causing significant social and environmental harm at the El Cerrejón mine in Colombia.

• Anglo American is a one-third shareholder in the El Cerrejón open-pit coal mine in La Guajira, Colombia, where its operations have led to severe environmental and social conflicts, including the appropriation of communal water sources and the displacement of indigenous, Afro-Colombian, and peasant communities.
• The report characterizes Anglo American's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts as 'greenwashing' designed to mask structural socio-environmental conflicts. These include biodiversity offsetting projects that ignore the irreplaceable nature of destroyed areas and the provision of public services used to privatize policy making.
• Anglo American utilizes a 'web of influence' consisting of various trade associations and lobby groups to promote business-friendly 'false solutions' to climate change, such as carbon markets, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and REDD, rather than reducing emissions at the source.
• The corporation has secured privileged access to international climate negotiations, specifically within the UNFCCC. At COP17 in Durban, Anglo American held a 'leadership role' due to its strength in South Africa, and at COP19, its executives promoted the idea that coal is necessary for poverty eradication.
• Anglo American lobbies through several specific organizations to advance its interests: EUROMINES for the EU carbon market and shale gas; ICMM for CCS and biodiversity offsets; IEACCC to influence policies in favor of the coal industry; and the UN Global Compact and WBCSD for a global carbon market.
• The report argues that the UNFCCC has been 'captured' by corporate interests, transforming from a democratic forum into a space for corporate-friendly policies, and calls for a total ban on corporate privileged access to climate policy-making spaces.

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} }