BP is Europe’s fiercest corporate opponent of action on climate change, according to a ranking of companies by their efforts to obstruct carbon-cutting initiatives.

 

Nearly half of the world’s top 100 global companies are trying to subvert climate policies by lobbying, advertising, and influence-peddling, said the UK-based non-profit, Influence Map.

 

But while all the major fossil fuel firms rank close to the bottom of the group’s table, BP emerges as Europe’s strongest advocate of dirty energy, opposing even mild measures to raise carbon trading prices.

 

“BP has been consistently opposed to all the main forms of climate change regulation,” said Thomas O’Neill, Influence Map’s research director. “There is very little positivity coming out of them and they are a board member of several obstructionist trade associations, some of which give a very dubious account of climate science.”

 

The new rankings used a methodology developed by the US-based Union of Concerned Scientists to measure corporate positions on climate legislation against criteria such as transparency, company performance and lobby interventions.

 

Google and Unilever were judged the best performing global businesses – both taking a ‘B’ rating – while Koch Industries, Phillips 66, Reliance Industries and Duke Energy footed the table, receiving ‘F’ grades.

 

Altogether, 45% of the top 100 global brands were found to be blocking moves to a low carbon economy.

 

 

PHOTO: BP chief executive officer Robert ‘Bob’ Dudley at the World Gas Conference, in Paris, France, earlier in June this year.

CREDIT: Christophe Morin/Bloomberg/Getty Images.