Netherlands: Shell, KLM and other companies accused of supporting a climate skeptic

Dozens of large Dutch groups including Shell and KLM in the 1990s financially supported in its activities a figure of climate skepticism in the Netherlands, according to revelations published Saturday by a group of investigative journalists.

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The purpose of this lobbying was to " cast doubt on climate change and the role of man in it ", affirms the Authentic Journalism Platform (PAJ), in a report entitled " Shell Papers ". The PAJ's findings were published on Saturday in the leading daily De Volkskrant and on Follow the Money, an independent Dutch news site for financial and economic investigative journalism.

One of the co-founders of the Club of Rome implicated

" Between 1989 and 1998, the Dutch climate-skeptic Frits Böttcher received more than one million guilders (450,000 euros) from Shell and other (Dutch) multinationals ," said PAJ, which said, on its website. drawn these conclusions after five months of research in the archives of Mr. Böttcher, professor emeritus of physical chemistry at the University of Leiden, who died in 2008.

Mr. Böttcher was also co-founder of the Club of Rome, a think tank created in 1968 bringing together scientists and economists in particular. Anglo-Dutch oil giant Shell, airline KLM, paint specialist AkzoNobel, ING bank and dozens of other companies have all paid funds to Böttcher, according to the journalists' collective. Böttcher used the money to publish books, reports and opinion pieces, and " build an international network of climate skeptics, " they say.

The professor of chemistry affirmed in particular that the greenhouse effect was a myth and considered that CO2 is not dangerous, but, on the contrary, " good for plants ". " His lobbying, scientists say, has contributed to the fact that the Netherlands has taken a long time to put in place a climate policy ," writes De Volkskrant.

Several groups implicated reacted in daily life. Some claim that the facts go back too long to be able to verify them in their archives, others acknowledge the payment of funds but assure that their company pays great attention today to climate problems.

“ It was 25, 30 years ago. We cannot speculate on what happened. We are going to look into it, "said Shell's press service, quoted by public television NOS. The environmental group Milieudefensie asked in a press release for a parliamentary inquiry into the influence of the business world on politics and science.

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