Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is; Disney, Gap and Pepsi Should Stop Funding U.S. Chamber and Its Bogus Climate Studies
June 2, 2017
Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is; Disney, Gap and Pepsi Should Stop Funding U.S. Chamber and Its Bogus Climate Studies
Statement of Robert Weissman, President, Public Citizen
In his speech Thursday announcing his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, President Donald Trump cited a debunked study paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as part of his rationale for quitting the accord. The money that paid for this report ultimately comes from the companies that fund the Chamber.
Disney, Gap and PepsiCo are three such companies that fund the Chamber, and by extension, the Chamber’s anti-climate work. In addition to commissioning this bogus report making the case for why the U.S. should withdraw from the Paris Agreement, the Chamber also is one of the lead plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the Clean Power Plan and has consistently opposed action on climate change.
These three companies claim to care about climate change, and Disney CEO Robert Iger even announced that he was quitting President Trump’s advisory council over the president’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. But their ongoing membership in and financial support of the Chamber mocks their pretensions of caring about the climate.
It’s time for Disney, Gap and PepsiCo to put their money where their mouths are and stop funding the Chamber.
Businesses of all types have a long record of funding the Chamber to take attack dog positions while trying to maintain their own benign reputations. The public is not going to fall for that trick when the fate of the planet is at stake.
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