This document outlines the Global Climate Coalition’s (GCC) efforts to solicit funds from member trade Association of International Automobile Manufacturers (AIAM). The GCC intended to use the funds for “studies to counter the new policy of the Clinton administration supporting a worldwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions.” It was submitted, along with other GCC documents, during discovery in Green Mtn. Chrysler Plymouth Dodge Jeep v. Crombie and Central Valley Chrysler-Jeep, Inc. v. Witherspoon.
The GCC opposed greenhouse gas regulations through direct engagement and collaboration with affiliated climate deniers from 1989 to 2002. Its membership spanned across the automotive, utility, manufacturing, petroleum, and mining industries. Here, the GCC was “asking AIAM to consider a contribution to the GCC Special Projects Fund… being used to fund studies to counter the new policy of the Clinton administration supporting a worldwide cap on greenhouse gas emissions.”
The GCC highlighted the fund’s utility in reaching decision-makers and monitoring the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and listed projects highlighting the following issues:
- the economic impacts on the US and other countries of an [Alliance of Small Island States]-type protocol;
- voluntary initiatives undertaken to date by US industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the success of those programs; and
- the “timing” issue, i.e. the 20-30 year time frame required to implement new, more energy efficient technologies before adopting any binding emissions reductions measures that can be scientifically justified.
The fund received $140,500 in 1995 and GCC hoped to raise an additional $145,000 in 1996. Short of their 1996 fundraising goals in September by $50,000, the GCC promised to “continue its work to ensure that climate change policy is developed in a rational, balanced manner.”
Interested in more GCC documents? See more in the full Global Climate Coalition collection.