London, world capital of the fossil fuel industry – and the dirty money which follows in its wake. CC: Neil Howard / Flickr. Some rights reserved.This week, senior executives of the oil and gas industry will be meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel in London for an exclusive conference named Oil & Money. Hosted by the New York Times and Energy Intelligence, the event is described as a “must attend” networking opportunity, a gathering of “over 450 of the most influential senior decision makers from the industry, along with government ministers and representatives, financiers and bankers, consultants and legal experts.”
The conference is sponsored by a number of notorious companies: Exxon Mobil (a historic funder of climate denial, now under investigation by two US attorney generals for fraud), Sonangol (the Angolan state oil company long accused of corruption and nepotism, now on the brink of bankruptcy), Gunvor (a commodity trading company previously investigated for corruption), Bank of America (the western world’s coal and fracking bank), Dow Chemical (the chemicals giant which has still not borne responsibility for the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster), and others.
Organisations working on climate justice, human rights and corruption are already mobilising a joint civil society response under the banner: “this is not a conference, this is a crime scene.” Corporate sponsorship is not a neutral transaction — it is a ticket to access and prestige. It can buy you platforms, friendships, seats on boards, building plaques, favours and even academic esteem.
