Public Service Europe: Corporate lobby 'diverts' EU attention from climate crisis

As European leaders meet to discuss energy policy, there is a real urgency to deal with the climate crisis – and the EU cannot be held hostage to corporate demands, say campaign groups

European Union leaders are meeting today to discuss furthering fossil fuel extraction including shale gas under the rhetoric of boosting growth, productivity and how to lower energy prices in order to 'improve' European industrial competitiveness. However, more than 30 climate justice groups arewarning that beneath these claims, lie policies that obscure increasing inequalities and environmental harm linked to fossil fuel extraction while diverting attention from the real need to slow global warming.

Resistance against hydraulic fracturing – the technology used to extract shale gas – is mounting in Europe. Pressure from communities has led the French and Bulgarian governments to prohibit shale gas exploration in their countries, and other EU countries are facing increasing public demand to ban fracking.This growing opposition is not surprising, given the negative ecological and social impacts of shale gas extraction. Water pollution, reduced air quality and negative impacts on nearby communities add to the climate impacts of a technology that locks in fossil-fuels extraction. MORE