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COP23: Guerilla against Greenwashing continued!

red-sticker-english2 years ago, during the UN Climate Summit COP21 in Paris, ASEED started the Guerilla Against Greenwashing. Why? Is it still relevant?

At the COP summits, government are discussing climate change. But those summits are heavily infiltrated and influenced by the industry. Large polluting corporations are presenting themselves greener than they are in reality, and thousands of their lobbyists are present in the city where the talks take place.

In the struggle against climate change, the large corporations are part of the problem and not of the solution. We should prevent them from continuing business as usual. Instead we have to get rid of capitalism and its forged economic growth, overproduction, exploitation and pollution.

The “first” Guerilla Against Greenwashing warned people of the greenwashing attempts during COP21. On many locations inside the conference center, at the corporate side events and in the streets of Paris, the same message has been spread to counter the misleading information. The situation has not changed much since 2015; we have to continue and intensify the Guerrilla Against Greenwashing in Bonn for the COP23.

 

As green as …

The Guerilla Against Greenwashing is spreading a simple message on red stickers, posters and other materials: “This Company is as green as this sticker / poster / banner….”. This message fits on all advertisements, reports, promotion stalls, suits and other greenwashing materials. The repetition should enable a strong dissemination of the message.

 


Get material (EN/DE available) and join this campaign in Bonn!

We have lots of stickers for people who want to participate in the Guerilla Against Greenwashing in Bonn. Send us an email at climate[a]aseed.net to know where to get yours, or find some at the circus tent next to the “Kitchen for all” (Rheinaustraße 94). You can also download the poster in English or in German and print some copies yourself (on red paper!). And of course, you can be creative and make your own flyer, poster, banner or other attribute to use for your own action against the greenwashers. Besides that, ASEED has also prepared a bunch of other nice stickers related to food, agriculture and climate.

 

Spreading the materials can be done individually or in small groups. Be creative and send us your pictures at climate [a] aseed.net


Name dropping: who are the greenwashers in Bonn?

Type “COP23 Bonn” in your search engine. What do you see on top of the results list? The same old same “Sustainable Innovation Forum”, a must-go side event for anyone in the “sustainability industry”. Why not picking the VIP lounge to spend “invaluable networking time” with “stakeholders with similar interests and business challenges” ?
SIF brings together 600+ carefully handpicked delegates, including : Ministers of Energy and Climate Change, Blue Chip CEOs, Mayors, Responsible Investors, Development Banks, Green Entrepreneurs and media, for two packed days of capacity building, networking, collaboration and deal making that will galvanise and fast track the green economy.”

BMW is the main sponsor of the green capitalism event. It is also supported by Siemens, Westport Fuel Systems (which is seeing a shift from fuel to natural gas as a great sustainable solution ), the Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (whose role is to facilitate and encourage bioethanol and biodiesel -yes, palm oil- production in Indonesia, and several chemical companies…

See on the left some priorities regarding climate change according the SIF (from their own comic, SIF 2015). See also how the envision changes in agriculture there. If you don’t understand anything, don’t worry, it does not make much sense to us either.

Besides the obvious ones, if you have great ideas about companies that should receive some sticker attention, please share some names or just organize your own action and send us some pictures.


Inspiration from actions against greenwashing in Paris (COP21)

Some groups visited the offices of Monsanto, biofuel producer Avril and energy company EDF and decided to wash their windows and walls with a sticky / stinky mix of colorful paint, engine oil and moldy soup (too bad the video is not accessible anymore). A few days later Avril’s office was decorated again to expose its slippery behavior and greenwash strategies. More than 400 actions were organised in paris and around in the frame of the Climate Games, “the world’s largest Disobedient Action Adventure Game”. Look at a compilation of videos from the actions here.


Continue reading about COP21 in Paris

  • Archive: ASEED prepared a Greenwashing guide to provide information to greenwashing gueriller@s in Paris.
  • To understand the mechanisms of greenwashing at COP21, Corporate Europe Observatory published a detailed report: The Corporate Cookbook – How climate criminals have captured COP21.
  • In addition, you can also read Lobby planet Paris – a guide to corporate COP21. This report mapped the big corporations, lobby groups and trade associations that were trying hard to capture the climate talks in Paris. Replace the big French names by other German and international companies (such as BMW) and you get the picture…

** Gallery with pictures of several guerilla sticker and poster actions **

 

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