MikePadgett.com

Green credentials

— Governments, global corporations and green issues: reflections on an environmental protest in Brussels.”

As often happens in the European district of Brussels, a protest took place right in front of us yesterday afternoon. On this occasion, the protester was Greenpeace and the subject was the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

In front of the Berlaymont building – home of the European Commission and perhaps the symbol of the EU in Brussels – activists smeared themselves in a substance resembling oil and carried yellow banners.

In late May, I’d noticed the banner for the Commission’s Green Week, held barely weeks after the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The logo seemed stylistcally reminiscent of Greenpeace’s own.

The purpose of Green Week was to highlight the effect of climate change on biodiversity and the Commission’s intent was to discuss policymaking in that domain.

The Commission sees Europe as a leading contributor to global environmental policy. Indeed, the current college of Commissioners, in office from 2010 to 2014, is the first to feature a Commissioner with a portfolio specifically dedicated to climate change.

A concerted response from world governments to environmental problems has been famously slow, but the scale of the Deepwater disaster – the massive leak is still not secure – also illustrates the responsibility and accountability of corporate businesses operating on a global scale.

Predictably, on these issues governments seem even more reluctant to intervene.