[GreenYes] greens boycott oil co.

["Bruce,Jr E Arkwright" <a-bruiexjr@lycos.com>]

Green Groups Vow Boycott of Oil Firms Over Kyoto
Source: PR Newswire - Apr 16,2001
        NEWS FROM EVWORLD.COM

CANBERRA, April 16 (Reuters) - Green political parties from around the world vowed on Monday to launch a boycott against multinational oil companies such as Exxon Mobil in an attempt to rescue world climate change talks.

Meeting in Australia at an inaugural Global Greens conference, delegates from 60 countries resolved to "send a message" to companies which they said helped sway U.S. President George W. Bush against the Kyoto treaty on global warming.

"Those companies have been pressing the Bush administration not to ratify the Kyoto protocol, so it's time to send them a message," European Federation of Greens Parties President Pekka Haavisto told Reuters.

"Consumer choice is something everyone can do," he said after more than 700 delegates voted unanimously for a grassroots campaign against companies such as U.S. major oil company Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM), France's TotalFinaElf (TOTF.PA) and their subsidiaries.

Environmentalists reacted angrily to last month's decision by the United States, the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, to abandon the Kyoto Protocol, which urged industrial countries to cut carbon dioxide and other gas emissions by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Delegates gave few details of the planned boycott when asked by reporters after the conference, but green groups said they would use their popular support in Europe to rally action.

A boycott of Royal Dutch/Shell (RD.AS)(SHEL.L) petrol stations by German motorists in 1995, sparked by a Greenpeace occupation of the Brent Spar oil rig, convinced Shell not to dump the rig at sea.

CALL TO BALANCE WTO

The three-day 2001 Global Greens conference also approved a charter, which among its aims included the formation of a World Environment Organisation, backed by an international court, to help balance the power of the World Trade Organisation.

"If you look at the 200 or so international environment conventions and then you look at the World Trade Organisation, there is no mechanism, no strength or environmental governance to prevent attacks on those conventions," Haavisto said.

The Green delegates arrived on foot, by bike or by compressed natural gas-powered buses at the Canberra conference, declaring they were no longer lobbyists but mainstream political players.

Green parties operate in 80 countries, hold seats in 29 national parliaments, and are part of coalition governments in Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Finland, Slovenia and Mexico.

German Greens Party secretary Reinhard Butikofer said environmentalists refused to concede that the Kyoto treaty could not go ahead without the United States, saying it could still be ratified by Europe and Japan.

"I think after Bush reneged on his campaign pledge, and went in a totally disastrous direction, the world will take a strong message to the Americans indicating that the only remaining superpower will not be able to turn the tide back, there is no going back on climate policy," he told Reuters.

Bush said during the presidential campaign he would act to reduce carbon emissions but changed his mind on the matter when he said new information pointed to a growing national energy crisis and the need to maintain power generation. 



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