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Exxon Funded Global Network to Undermine UN Climate Treaty
3 Nov
Summary
- Exxon financed climate denial efforts across Latin America
- Funded translations of books denying human-caused climate change
- Organized events to sway politicians and media against climate treaties
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the Texas-based fossil fuel company Exxon financed a coordinated global campaign to derail the UN-led climate treaty process. According to previously unpublished documents, Exxon provided funding to the Atlas Network, a US-based coalition of over 500 free-market think tanks, to spread climate change denial across Latin America.
The money from Exxon helped finance Spanish and Chinese translations of books denying human-caused climate change, as well as flights for American climate deniers to speak at events in Latin American cities. The goal was to convince developing nations of "the adverse effects of global climate change treaties" and make them "less inclined" to support the UN climate process.
This effort exacerbated geopolitical tensions and economic fears that still persist today, according to experts. The consequences of this decades-long campaign are now impossible to ignore, as the world faces irreversible damage to the planet's coral reefs and the potential collapse of the Amazon rainforest.
