AI’s parent Holcim is a paid-up member of the API – a US lobby group ‘lying on an industrial scale to stall legislation to combat climate crisis’

Earlier this year, we asked Why is LafargeHolcim a member of API – the Big Oil lobby group ‘obstructing urgent climate action’?

The American Petroleum Institute has been in the news again:

How a powerful US lobby group helps big oil to block climate action https://t.co/l60W41yQY2

— Guardian Environment (@guardianeco) July 19, 2021

When Royal Dutch Shell published its annual environmental report in April, it boasted that it was investing heavily in renewable energy... 

On the same day, Shell issued a separate report revealing that its single largest donation to political lobby groups last year was made to the American Petroleum Institute, one of the US’s most powerful trade organizations, which drives the oil industry’s relationship with Congress... 

Shell donated more than $10m to API last year alone. 

And it’s not just Shell. Most other oil conglomerates are also major funders, including ExxonMobil, Chevron and BP, although they have not made their contributions public. 

Critics accuse Shell and other major oil firms of using API as cover for the industry. While companies run publicity campaigns claiming to take the climate emergency seriously, the trade group works behind the scenes in Congress to stall or weaken environmental legislation. 

Earlier this year, an Exxon lobbyist in Washington was secretly recorded by Greenpeace describing API as the industry’s “whipping boy” to direct public and political criticism away from individual companies. 

Aggregate Industries' parent, Holcim – the rebranded Swiss cement giant that apparently "builds progress for people and the planet" whilst simultaneously filling our atmosphere with monstrous amounts of CO2 – is a paid-up member of the API:

Like Shell and the other oil majors, Holcim boasts of all it is doing to curb its harmful ways, putting "sustainability at the core of its strategy", claiming "Now is the time to act", etc etc:

"Now is the time to act" We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to accelerate sustainable construction by putting climate action at the heart of the world’s recovery. A green recovery means focussing on renovation and modernising infrastructure to build a sustainable future.

— Holcim (@Holcim) June 3, 2021

But if that were true, why does Holcim still align itself with a lobby group accused of "lying on a massive industrial scale" about the climate crisis, that "works behind the scenes in Congress to stall or weaken environmental legislation"?