Balkan: Euracoal Unveils Report on Anti-Coal NGOs Funding

The European Association for Coal and Lignite (EURACOAL) released October 9 a report on the funding of anti-coal campaigns by NGOs. It finds that a wave of money is flooding into the EU policy space from a small number of super-rich donors, many from the US, who hope to influence EU climate and energy policy in favour of their own preferred solutions, whatever the cost to European consumers.

“This is a story about money and power; a story in which Europe is viewed as a “laboratory for the world”, EURACOAL said in a press release.

Public campaigns against coal are portrayed as grass-roots, climate-action movements, but are in fact well-orchestrated by a handful of organisations with enormous budgets, EURACOAL claims in its report. According to the paper, the European Climate Foundation spends EUR 26 million each year on lobbying against coal in Brussels. It sits at the centre of a complex web of compliant NGOs, paying each of them to echo its own call for climate action. Together, they command significant influence with European governments and the European Commission, using well-paid professional agents, EURACOAL said in its report.

source: publics.bg