The report titled “Anglo American´s dirty energy lobby and its false climate solutions” examines the activities of this mining giant and focuses on one of the world´s largest open-pit mines, El Cerrejon, in La Guajira, Colombia.

The new paper was launched on December 8 in Lima, capital of Peru, in the framework of the UN talks on climate change that took place from December 1st to December 14th.

“Anglo American profits from false solutions to the climate crisis such as carbon trading and carbon capture and storage, which benefit big business but not people or the planet”, states the press release issued on December 8th by Friends of the Earth International. “Anglo American continues to expand its climate-wrecking dirty business model while using green funds, offset mechanisms and dodgy techno-fixes to present a green image”.

According to activist Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory, the British – South African company “has aggressively lobbied against subsidies for renewables because it favors dirty energies such as coal and shale gas”, and it has “lobby groups” with “privileged access” to decision makers.

Meanwhile, Lyda Forero, member of the Transnational Institute said that "mining in El Cerrejón has brought land grabbing, dispossession and water scarcity to La Guajira in Colombia, and has been denounced by indigenous, peasant, and Afro-Colombian communities. El Cerrejón exports all the coal extracted while leaving behind human and environmental rights violations."

Also, Friends of the Earth International´s Economic Justice Resisting Neoliberalism Program Coordinator, Lucia Ortiz, stated that "the interests of corporations such as Anglo American clearly come before the people’s interests at the climate talks and this is outrageous. Anglo American is well known for the massive impacts of its
unsustainable mining operations. Decision makers should listen to the people, not to corporate polluters", she added.

Some of the real solutions to the climate crisis raised by Friends of the Earth International include drastic green house gas emission reductions, stopping fossil fuel extraction, changing the energy model to give way to decentralized and community-based renewable energy sources, stopping deforestation and promoting community forest management, food sovereignty, among other things.