Thread by @robbiesemple

Ireland and the climate crisis - one story illuminating why we are where we are. Thread
#ipcc #greenwashing #socent

Ireland’s biggest fossil fuel company is @dccplc .

They are a FTSE100 company. Last year they made £13.4 billion in revenue and £530.2 million in profit. 71% of the profit came from their fossil fuel businesses.

We all know that we need to stop using fossil fuels. But even with the ocean on fire, DCC have not committed to stop selling oil and gas.

‘In the face of a global crisis, Ireland’s biggest fossil fuel company refuses to stop selling fossil fuels ’: Why is this not more of a story?

DCC are very good at communications. Given how they make their money, most publicity is bad for business, so they keep a low profile.

Most Irish people have never heard of them. Some people confuse them with Dublin City Council. You could walk past the global headquarters of their £14 billion-a-year business in Sandyford Industrial Estate and never even realise.

And what they do communicate is very skillful. Look at this from their website:

This is a masterclass in how to tell the world you won’t stop selling fossil fuels without telling the world you won’t stop selling fossil fuels.

The key is referring only to scope 1 and 2 emissions, meaning the emissions produced in running their business. For DCC, that will include things like electricity for their factories, and fuel for their trucks. But they don’t mention scope 3 emissions...

... which would include emissions produced in their supply chain, or by their customers.

For DCC, that means they don’t have to worry about the methane that escapes when it's fracked out of the earth, or the carbon emitted as their oil and gas they sell is burned by end users.

DCC’s 2021 sustainability report refers to scope 3 emissions, but doesn’t quantify them and has set no targets for reducing them.

So with their current banner commitments, they could double the amount of fossil fuels they sell and still meet their 2050 targets.

😱😱

As an aside, if you think addressing emissions in a company’s value chain isn’t doable, look at @Pukkaherbs. They recognise that people boiling kettles for tea is the biggest part of their carbon footprint and have set quantified targets for reducing these ‘scope 3 emissions’.

So our biggest fossil fuel company isn’t doing enough on the climate emergency. In a healthy democracy, surely this is where an independent media comes in?

But we know the climate emergency doesn’t get the media coverage it needs. And by staying boring, DCC have avoided scrutiny. In fact if you google DCC and sustainability, you’ll see they have written all the top results themselves.

And when you look at how the media cover DCC more generally...

It’s depressing how long this cartoon has stayed relevant

We know it’s hard for the #media to cover climate, but it’s also really necessary. As a society, when we allow the powerful to write their own story without being held to account we all lose.

There are encouraging noises coming out of @rtenews at the moment. Hopefully this is the start of a new chapter in our conversation on climate. We clearly need it.

But responsibility doesn’t stop with the media. As well as managing the media narrative well, DCC have invested smartly to #greenwash their business. The charity and social enterprise sector needs to stamp this out.

This thread is too long already, so I’ll write more on greenwashing separately, but it’s a bigger problem than you think. DCC’s greenwashing strategy is built around Social Entrepreneurs Ireland.

In order to navigate the climate emergency, we clearly need a social economy that prioritises planet and people ahead of profit. @SEIreland has done some great work building a social economy over the last 15 years.

But in accepting DCC sponsorship, @SEIreland exacerbate the climate emergency and ultimately all big social problems in two ways. First, it softens DCC’s image with the public every time SEI does something.

You will regularly see SEI ads featuring DCC in major national newspapers, on buses, or at train stations. You might not believe ads or product placement influence you, but would the global advertising mega-industry exist if they didn’t?

Secondly, and more problematically, the funding effectively gags large parts of the #charity and #socent sector. People who might be vocal critics of Ireland’s biggest fossil fuel company are understandably reluctant to speak out...

...against a company that is indirectly funding them, or friends and allies in the sector. @RonanODalaigh is a brave and rare exception to this rule.

https://twitter.com/RonanODalaigh/status/1360396970129563649

Charities and social enterprises are trying to solve big social problems. The climate emergency is going to make all big social problems much worse over the next two decades. It must be unacceptable for #charities and #socialenterprise to take fossil fuel funding.

Earlier this summer, I quit my job with @seireland.

I loved the work, but as someone deeply concerned about the climate crisis, I couldn’t stay.

I had been arguing for a move away from fossil fuel funding for a couple of years. It was made clear to me earlier this year by the board that @SEIreland have no intention of moving away from fossil fuel funding.

I have run a social enterprise. I know how hard it is to turn down funding. But any charity or social enterprise that is serious about improving the world we live in must take stock of the harm it does in the world as well as the good.

So the bad news is that the world is burning. The good news is there is loads we can do to stop it.

We must make it unacceptable for big corporations to prioritise profit over planet. We must demand companies make meaningful commitments to stop selling fossil fuels.

If you’re an employee, an investor, or a customer of fossil fuel companies, you have more power than you think.

If you’re none of these, you will have no barriers to speaking up. Demand DCC measure their scope 3 emissions and commit to eliminating them.

Or go further… Join a political party, a shareholder activist group, or a movement like @ExtinctRebelsIE to take direct action

We must ask our media to #CoverClimateLikeCovid, and to hold the powerful in our society to account as we make this transition.

If you’re involved in the media, you can cast a critical eye over climate commitments of our biggest polluters, & kickstart the conversations we need.

And we must demand that our charities and social enterprises live up to the leadership position they hold in our society. They must stop #greenwashing.

If you are involved in #socent, #charity or the social impact sector, you can rid the sector of fossil fuel money and say no to #greenwashing. I couldn’t convince @SEIreland alone, but together, maybe a few of us can. /end