Undermining Climate Action: The Fight by European Oil Companies Against the European Carbon Tax

This article examines, in the lead-up to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, the role of five major European oil companies-BP in the United Kingdom, Shell in the Netherlands and UK, ENI in Italy, and Total and Elf in France-in scuttling the European Commission's carbon and energy tax proposal developed within the European institutions since 1989. Based on fresh material from European, national, and private business archives, the study discusses their influence on EC climate policymaking toward a governance tool for regulating CO 2 emissions. To this end, we examine the rise of climate change as an issue on the EC political agenda, and within European oil and gas companies. This paper also explores how they cooperated with one another, and worked with several key business associations against any regulation or fiscal instrument for CO 2 reductions. Lastly, this paper assesses the last stages of the battle in 1992, highlighting the arenas in the EC decision-making process that the European oil sector targeted to undermine the carbon tax initiative before the Earth Summit. While most historical research on climate obstruction has focused on US actors, this article is a contribution to the history of climate obstruction in Europe