Editing Global Climate Coalition (section)

== Founding ==
The Global Climate Coalition (GCC) was formed in 1989 as a project under the auspices of the [[National Association of Manufacturers]].<ref name=levyrothenberg>{{harvnb|Levy|Rothenberg|1999}}: On the organizational level, the three major US automobile companies, as well as the [[American Automobile Manufacturers Association]] (AAMA) worked largely through the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which was formed in 1989, initially under the auspices of the [[National Association of Manufacturers]] (NAM), but reorganized as an independent entity in 1992.</ref> The GCC was formed to represent the interests of the major producers and users of [[fossil fuel]]s,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kolk |first1=Ans |first2=David |last2=Levy |chapter=Multinationals and global climate change. Issues for the automotive and oil industries |title=''Multinationals, Environment and Global Competition'' |year=2003 |chapter-url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/235253964 |doi=10.1016/S1064-4857(03)09008-9 |isbn=9780762309665 |editor-first=Sarianna M. |editor-last=Lundan |access-date=February 23, 2016 |quote=This aggressive approach was typified in the activities of The Global Climate Coalition (GCC), an industry association formed in 1989 to represent major fossil fuel users and producers, which has strongly challenged the scientific basis for action, questioned the legitimacy of the [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]] (IPCC), and highlighted potential economic costs.}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Franz|1998}}: GCC was established in 1989 to coordinate business participation in the science and policy debate on the climate change issue.</ref> to oppose regulation to mitigate global warming,<ref name=rahm>{{harvnb|Rahm|2009}}: In 1989, [[ExxonMobil]] and the [[American Petroleum Institute]] (which was twice chaired by [[Lee Raymond]]) formed the Global Climate Coalition. The Coalition's mission was to oppose policy action on climate change. ExxonMobil and the Coalition argued that global warming was a natural phenomenon and that human actions were not contributing to it.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mooney|2005}}: In 1989, the petroleum and automotive industries and the National Association of Manufacturers forged the Global Climate Coalition to oppose mandatory actions to address global warming.</ref> and to challenge the science behind [[global warming]].<ref>{{harvnb|Lee|2003}}: Exxon's backing of third-party groups is a marked contrast to its more public role in the Global Climate Coalition, an industry group formed in 1989 to challenge the science around global warming.</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Brulle |first=Robert J. |date=2022 |title=Advocating inaction: a historical analysis of the Global Climate Coalition |journal=Environmental Politics |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=185–206 |doi=10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815 |s2cid=248112482 |issn=0964-4016|doi-access=free }}</ref> Context for the founding of the GCC from 1988 included the establishment of the [[Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]] (IPCC)<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dunlap |first1=Riley E. |first2=Aaron M. |last2=McCright |chapter=Organized climate change denial |title=The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society |year=2011 |pages=144–160 |publisher=OUP Oxford |chapter-url=http://scottvalentine.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/dunlap_cc_denial.302183828.pdf |isbn=9780199566600 |access-date=February 23, 2016 |quote=The Global Climate Coalition (GCC), formed in 1989 in reaction to the establishment of the IPCC, was an early front group designed to combat evidence of climate change and climate policy making. |archive-date=March 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304081400/http://scottvalentine.net/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/dunlap_cc_denial.302183828.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> and [[NASA]] climatologist [[James Hansen]]'s congressional testimony that climate change was occurring.<ref>{{harvnb|McGregor|2008}}: One of the reasons given for its formation was that in 1988 there was a: “very alarmist presentation by James Hansen of NASA to a Senate Committee that climate change was taking place”.</ref> The government affairs' offices of five or six corporations recognized that they had been inadequately organized for the [[Montreal Protocol]], the international treaty that phased out [[ozone]] depleting [[chlorofluorocarbon]]s, and the [[Clean Air Act (United States)|Clean Air Act]] in the United States, and recognized that fossil fuels would be targeted for regulation.<ref>{{harvnb|Franz|1998}}: The GCC began when the federal affairs representatives of five or six companies realized that they had not been organized for the Clean Air Act and its amendments or for the Montreal protocol. By 1989, it seemed clear the climate issue would come to directly address fossil fuels.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Levy|Rothenberg|1999}}: A senior GCC staff member, discussing motivations for the creation of the GCC, expressed the view that industry had “been caught napping” by the ozone issue, and that there was also considerable dissatisfaction with the Clean Air Act process. As he expressed it, “Boy, if we didn't like the Montreal Protocol, we knew we really wouldn’t like climate change! This is the mother of all issues!”</ref>

According to GCC's mission statement on the home page of its website, GCC was established: "to coordinate business participation in the international policy debate on the issue of global climate change and global warming,"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalclimate.org/index.htm |publisher=Global Climate Coalition |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010302000601/http://www.globalclimate.org/index.htm |archive-date=March 2, 2001 |title=Home |url-status=dead |access-date=February 18, 2016 |quote=The Global Climate Coalition is an organization of trade associations established in 1989 to coordinate business participation in the international policy debate on the issue of global climate change and global warming.}}</ref> and GCC's executive director in a 1993 press release said GCC was organized "as the leading voice for industry on the global climate change issue."<ref>{{cite press release |first=John |last=Shlaes |publisher=Global Climate Coalition |url=http://www.thefreelibrary.com/STATEMENT+BY+JOHN+SHLAES,+EXECUTIVE+DIRECTOR,+GLOBAL+CLIMATE+COALITION-a013111109 |title=Statement by John Shlaes, executive director, Global Climate Coalition |agency=[[PR Newswire]] |date=February 2, 1993 |access-date=February 18, 2016 |archive-date=July 10, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170710122801/https://www.thefreelibrary.com/STATEMENT+BY+JOHN+SHLAES,+EXECUTIVE+DIRECTOR,+GLOBAL+CLIMATE+COALITION-a013111109 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

GCC reorganized independently in 1992,<ref name=levyrothenberg/> with the first chairman of the board of directors being the director of government relations for the [[Phillips Petroleum Company]].<ref>{{harvnb|McGregor|2008}}: ... GCC’s first chairman Thomas Lambrix, director of government relations for Phillips Petroleum.</ref> Exxon, later [[ExxonMobil]], was a founding member, and a founding member of the GCC's board of directors; the energy giant also had a leadership role in coalition.<ref>{{harvnb|Whitman|2015}}: The company, which in 1999 became Exxon Mobil, helped found the Global Climate Coalition, which from 1989 to 2002 argued the role "of greenhouse gases in climate change is not well understood," the ''New York Times'' reported Friday.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015}}: "Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition, an alliance of some of the world's largest companies seeking to halt government efforts to curb fossil fuel emissions."</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Van den Hove|Le Menestrel|De Bettignies|2002}}: Instrumental to the implementation of Exxon’s strategy was its participation in industry and lobby groups. Exxon is a prominent member of the American Petroleum Institute (API), the major US petroleum industry trade association, and was, from the date of its creation in 1989, a board member of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), one of the most influential US lobbying front group on the climate issue.</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lorenzetti|2015}}: Exxon has known about climate change for almost 40 years, despite its efforts to continue to promote fossil fuels and deny its existence throughout the 1990s as a leader of the Global Climate Coalition</ref><ref name=vidal/><ref>{{harvnb|Banerjee|Song|Hasemyer|2015}}: Exxon helped to found and lead the Global Climate Coalition</ref> The [[American Petroleum Institute]] (API) was a leading member of the coalition.<ref>{{harvnb|Mooney|2005}}: In 1989, the petroleum and automotive industries and the National Association of Manufacturers forged the Global Climate Coalition to oppose mandatory actions to address global warming. Exxon—later ExxonMobil—was a leading member, as was the American Petroleum Institute</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Lieberman|Rust|2015}}: a collection of energy companies, primarily from the coal sector, created the Global Climate Coalition to fight impending climate change regulations. The group approached the American Petroleum Institute for funding and support in the early 1990s. William O’Keefe, executive vice president of the Petroleum Institute at the time, delivered.</ref> API's executive vice president was a chairman of the coalition's board of directors.<ref>{{harvnb|Lieberman|Rust|2015}}: William O’Keefe, executive vice president of the Petroleum Institute at the time, delivered. The major oil companies, he recalled, decided “something has to be done.” By 1993, he was sitting on the board, and within a few years, he was chairman.</ref><ref>{{cite news |magazine=[[Newsweek]] |title=Global Warming Deniers Well Funded |url=http://www.newsweek.com/global-warming-deniers-well-funded-99775 |date=August 12, 2007 |access-date=February 6, 2016 |quote=There is too much "scientific uncertainty" to justify curbs on greenhouse emissions, William O'Keefe, then a vice president of the American Petroleum Institute and leader of the Global Climate Coalition, suggested in 1996. |archive-date=June 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619065047/https://www.newsweek.com/global-warming-deniers-well-funded-99775 |url-status=live }}</ref> Other GCC founding members included the [[National Coal Association]], [[United States Chamber of Commerce]], [[American Forest & Paper Association]], and [[Edison Electric Institute]]. GCC's executive director John Shlaes was previously the director of government relations at the Edison Electric Institute.<ref>{{harvnb|McGregor|2008}}: The initial GCC members included major fossil fuel industry organisations (American Petroleum Institute, National Coal Association), major generators and industrial users of electricity (most generators in US use coal) and more general Business Interest NGOs (BINGOs) - US Chamber of Commerce, American Paper Institute and others... Executive Director...John Shlaes, was previously director of government relations at Edison Electric Institute (EEI), the association of investor-owned electric utilities. EEI was a founding member of the GCC.</ref> GCC was run by [[Ruder Finn]], a public relations firm.<ref>{{harvnb|Hammond|1997}}: The Global Climate Coalition (GCC), run by Washington P.R. firm Ruder Finn, represents the big oil, gas, coal, and auto corporations.</ref> GCC's comprehensive PR campaign was designed by [[E. Bruce Harrison]], who had been creating campaigns for the US industry against environmental legislation from the 1970s.<ref>{{cite journal|publisher=Taylor&Francis Online|title=Advocating inaction: a historical analysis of the Global Climate Coalition|date=11 April 2022|doi=10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815 |last1=Brulle |first1=Robert J. |journal=Environmental Politics |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=185–206 |s2cid=248112482 |doi-access=free }}</ref>

GCC was the largest industry group active in climate policy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=David L. |first2=Daniel |last2=Egan |title=Capital contests: National and transnational channels of corporate influence on the climate change negotiations |journal=[[Politics & Society|Politics and Society]] |volume=26 |issue=3 |year=1998 |pages=337–361 |access-date=February 23, 2016 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249674467 |doi=10.1177/0032329298026003003 |s2cid=154879490 |archive-date=June 29, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210629032048/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/249674467_Capital_Contests_National_and_Transnational_Channels_of_Corporate_Influence_on_the_Climate_Change_Negotiations |url-status=live }}</ref> About 40 companies and industry associations were GCC members.<ref>{{harvnb|Levy|Rothenberg|1999}}: The GCC represented about 40 companies and industry associations</ref> Considering member corporations, member [[trade association]]s, and business represented by member trade associations, GCC represented over 230,000 businesses. Industry sectors represented included: aluminium, paper, transportation, power generation, petroleum, chemical, and small businesses.<ref name="Franz 1998">{{harvnb|Franz|1998}}</ref>  All major oil companies were members until 1996 (Shell left in 1998).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=David L. |first2=Ans |last2=Kolk |title=Strategic responses to global climate change: Conflicting pressures on multinationals in the oil industry |journal=Business and Politics |volume=4 |issue=3 |year=2002 |pages=275–300 |access-date=February 15, 2016 |doi=10.1080/1369525021000158391 |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4985263 |doi-access=free |archive-date=August 7, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210807083312/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/4985263 |url-status=live }}</ref>  GCC members were from industries that would have been adversely effected by limitations on fossil fuel consumption.<ref>{{harvnb|Levy|1997}}: the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), which represents more than 50 companies and trade associations in the oil, coal, utility, chemicals, and auto industries. These industries stand to lose out if curbs are placed on fossil fuels</ref>  GCC was funded by membership dues.<ref name="Franz 1998"/><ref>{{harvnb|Revkin|2009}}: The coalition was financed by fees from large corporations and trade groups representing the oil, coal and auto industries, among others.</ref>