As leading industry laggards met at the European Business Summit on 18 May, Friends of the Earth Europe distributed a spoof newspaper, ‘European Noise’. Key business sectors pushing against effective climate action were met with the parody paper produced to raise awareness and engage business and EU leaders towards bold climate action.
Around 10,000 copies were distributed around the European Business Summit, Brussels’ biggest annual lobby forum, and elsewhere.
Some within the business community, like summit organiser and lobby group BusinessEurope, are seeking to delay climate action. This will increase the long-term costs for industry and society, whereas acting now would benefit the economy, creating millions of new jobs.
European Noise, by highlighting how industry and business are preventing vital climate action, and illustrating how ridiculous their rhetoric is, showed EU leaders that it’s time to reject skewed industry arguments and introduce the tough targets needed.
