Positive Money Partners with Fossil Free Parliament

April 17, 2024 

We’re excited to share Positive Money’s new partnership with the campaign group Fossil Free Parliament; the UK-wide movement working to free Parliament from the polluting influence of fossil fuels. 

Big banks and corporations have captured politics to create a financial system that puts profit above all else – and fossil fuel companies are no exception. The oil and gas industries have been polluting our politics for decades to prevent governments from taking strong action on climate change. 

Using donations, private lobbying meetings and the lure of well-paid jobs, the fossil fuel industry is able to pressure decision makers to act in its favour. As Fossil Free Parliament reported last year, members of the fossil fuel industry lobby group Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) met with government ministers 211 times between February 2022 and February 2023. In contrast, 10 of the UK’s leading environmental and social justice organisations had just 32 meetings in the same time period. OEUK used this extremely privileged access to ministers to weaken the effect of the Windfall Tax on the industry’s obscene profits.

Politicians are giving those who are already winning the game, the power to keep writing the rules. As we uncovered in our report The Power of Big Finance; every single former Chancellor in the last 40 years has gone on to take up a paid position in the private finance sector after leaving public life. While new research from investigative journalists at The Ferret revealed more than 100 oil and gas sector representatives have taken up senior government positions under the Conservatives, while two dozen politicians have left Parliament to take on roles at major fossil fuel companies.

While many more MPs and members of the House of Lords have part-time positions consulting for, or receive donations from, private companies while still in office. We need to slam this revolving door shut. A demand we share with Fossil Free Parliament: a ban on second jobs for MPs. Find out more about their work and spare five minutes to send the No Fossil Funding Pledge to your MP (if they haven’t signed already) here. Positive Money is a proud member of several coalitions because we believe we’re stronger when we act together. We’re excited to share info and explore opportunities to collaborate in the future. 

As Caroline Lucas MP tweeted when our report came out, we need to stop big banks from hijacking our democracy. This work doesn’t end with the finance lobby but overlaps with other industries that are wreaking destruction on people and planet, be that Barclays bankrolling genocide, or BP endangering millions of marine wildlife, we need to stop the money pipeline that’s funding these activities. And ultimately, we need to stop big corporations of any kind from buying seats at the table, and kick them out of politics to restore the most important voice in parliament: ours.

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