Since I am from the Arab Middle East -as I like to call it- who is suffering from different kinds of corruption, especially political and Economical corruption, It is no secret that the Arab East has also suffered from economic stagnation and failure of Economic plans for decades by the political elites policies, despite the abundance of excellence that has made oil has a large cash reserves have not absorbed by their Economies fragile
We’ve noticed how the Panama Papers covered the biggest oil barons in the Arab Middle East such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, perhaps the Arab share of the $ 250 billion shown by the reports and incurred by the governments of the world of tax evasion which was the largest share for the Arab East, In developed democratic countries, which hit the Panama Papers scandal, resigned politicians and officials, as it happened for the president of Iceland and the minister of industry in Spain, while in the Arab Middle East didn’t find any of these resignations, where the involvement of the kings and Presidents and heads of Ministries!
Now clear that the Panama Papers showed that the corruption of international fossil lobby didn’t spoil our democracies, but also undermined the Earth’s climate is also exacerbated by global warming, they used the tax haven to avoid paying taxes of their profits made by extracting and burning fossil fuels
The huge profits generated from this corruption fossil dirty rotten in our East Arab, not used in any of the infrastructure development or the eradication of poverty and backwardness or debt service at least in the less fortunate Arab country’s, one such country was less fortunate is Jordan, where it appeared the former prime minister’s name in Panama Papers scandal “Rateb Abu Arrageb” It was shocking for the Jordanian people, who weary of taxes and more of annual new forms! even more bizarre is that those big profits did not also be used in rich countries but also exported abroad and used for a long -term deposits, another example of the Arab poor countries, which has long suffered from political corruption, Economic stagnation and the failure of the development plans, is Egypt, where Gamal Mubarak’s name appeared in Panama Papers
Often come back those long -term deposits to the East Arab a form of debt, one of these countries is Jordan, which has increased its foreign debt during the year 2015 six billion dollars
It is worth mentioning that the fossil lobby was involved in the damage climate and democracies of countries since 1977, when the attorney general of New York city revealed that ExxonMobil Corp., the largest energy company in the world, how it know early in 1977 on climate change for the worse, they hid those documents consuming and information in order to achieve more profits
Another shame example “unaoil” scandal it has shown the last Unaoil how the multinational oil companies have paid millions of dollars in bribes to win contracts for oil exploration in the Middle East -Arab East-, Central Asia and Africa, through the consulting firm Unaoil which launched her name on the scandal, which is based in Monaco in France, this confirms that the fossil fuel companies involved in corruption too many years, It is through the names that appeared of the Panama Papers we saw how it had obtained the bribes, they are political elites
Climate change denial
ExxonMobil corp. scandal was the biggest example of the denial of climate change for the worse, this large international companies within the fossil lobby and pressure groups have a negative impact on the continued climate of our planet and harming our democracy, so the International lobby fossil formed by major pressure companies that create climate change through producing more greenhouse gases from burning dirty fossil fuels, but undermined our countries with democracies through the payment of bribes and tax evasion, and these shameful acts messed up our political elites
Most of the Arab countries that burns now inside the furnace of war, appeared the names of the presidents in the Panama Papers, such as Syrian President “Bashar al-Assad”, the son of the deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak “Gamal Mubarak” and Yemeni President robber “Ali Abdullah Saleh”, It may be like these names and others received bribes from international fossil lobby tens of millions of dollars in order to get contracts to explore for oil in their own countries,especially since the Arab East oil- rich
There are many examples such corruption as a “gupta family” controversial and their relationship with the president of South Africa, where it is believed it got contracts for supply of coal to the Exum company for electricity generate in South Africa decades, as well as in Brazil when it revealed Panama Papers corruption scandals too bulky related to oil, ” Petrobras ” a company partly owned by the state, these scandals and companies associated with the politicians and executives at Petrobras
In the previous paragraphs of this article, we watched how the company’s biggest power in the world learned of climate change in early of 1977, but it didn’t only that, but wasted decades, it obscures that information and worked hard to mislead the international community and and refuse to acknowledge publicly climate change, all of these shameful acts…only in order to achieve profits
Lobby fossil companies have long worked to support and encourage projects that serve its interests, forgetting those eco-friendly projects, Proof of this is to invest in environmentally-friendly projects, where a study early in 2015 that ExxonMobil corp. was the actor, which funded the establishment of think tanks specialized in misleading the world public opinion institutions through the media on climate change for many years, since donated ExxonMobil corp. $ 120 billion during those years, to more than 100 Foundation and a group of anti- climate to distort the science of climate change which rely clean energy reached until early 2016 to $ 300 billion, despite the fact that environmentalists consider it encouraging, where climate scientists is that it is not enough, they are advised to completely stop burning fossil fuels, and leaving 75% of its reserves stored in the ground without extracting
Harm to democracy
It has become more apparent now, when we believe that the international fossil lobby destroyed democracies of our countries as well as destruction of the climate of our planet
Every year held international conferences on climate change and the threat of global warming, at the end this is similar international conferences mountains that mountains intervention to give birth pangs of mice, this apparent failure because the fossil fuel industry to intervene in the government at various levels and corrupt rulers, these rulers are the ones who are involved in these conferences and make them fail even at the UN level
The COP21 is peing sponsored and financed by major transnational corporations with deep stackes in fossil fuel and emissions-intensive industries, and with established records of political interference in environmental policymaking at all levels of governance
On November 30 last in 2015 the world met in Paris, they discussed a new agreement for tackling climate change, organized through the UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC), the 21st conference of Parties (COP21) they sought through it into a legally binding agreement on climate action, namely greenhouse, gas emission reductions, by all countries of the world, however, with major industrial polluters using their deep pockets to influence climate policy, at every level, how will a meaningful agreement be secured
Despite the lack of seriousness of the international community on climate conferences the result was the UNFCCC’s mandate to mitigate climate change through a legaly binding and universally enforseable treaty is thus more than an environmental necessity; it is a social and moral emperative
The COP21’s greenwashing its environmentally destructive operations, engie has signed onto the UN global co pact, a voluntary corporate “sustainability initiative” that essentially functions as a PR platform, the corporation also participates in caring for climate an initiative launched by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon in 2007, witch places a strong emphasis on enhancing the role of business in finding strategic solutions to adapt to the impacts of climate change on development. Angie’s participation in these initiatives is yet another example of a corporation positioning itself as a solution to the very problem it helped create and continues to drive, while committing to no meaningful changes in its polluting operations
But despite the binding decisions that came out of the Paris Conference in 2015 , but relations remain suspicious of politicians and corporate fossil fuel industry in the fossil lobby
There are many examples which show that the doors remained equivocation between politicians and the international lobby fossil.. “Juan Pablo Perez Alfonso”, one of the founders of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), once compared the world’s fossil-fuel use to “drowning in the devil’s excrement.” There is certainly plenty of evidence supporting his prediction that the fossil-fuel industry, with its powerful corrupting influence, will “bring us ruin.” Indeed, coal-related corruption stories are breaking worldwide, shining a light on the murky space between “illegal” and “improper” where the attractive industries work
Also last year, in the Australian state of New South Wales, the Independent Commission Against Corruption investigated former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald for conspiring to defraud the state over the issuance of multi-million-dollar licenses for coal exploration and mining. Today, the ICAC is conducting an even more far-reaching and complex investigation into a number of figures from the Australian Labor Party and the Liberal/Nationals Coalition, including for favoring the interests of Australian Water Holdings, a major infrastructure company
last month India’s Supreme Court found that all 218 coal-mining licenses allocated by the government in 1993-2009 had been granted in an “illegal and arbitrary” manner, with the committee responsible for the process lacking transparency and rife with corruption. Following the landmark decision, the government has canceled 214 of the coal block allocations – and has fined several companies that have already begun production
For its part, Indonesia is set to revoke the contracts of 17 coal producers that failed to pay government royalties. And, since the beginning of this year, the country’s corruption commission has been focusing on the extractive industry, including the state officials who facilitate mining companies’ illegal activities
Likewise, China’s ongoing anti-corruption drive – the largest in its modern history – has begun to focus on the coal industry. Last month, two Communist Party officials from the coal-rich Shanxi province were charged with corruption and abuse of power, signaling that Shanxi may well move to the forefront of President Xi Jinping’s quest to eliminate entrenched corruption in the Party’s ranks. As Gao Qinrong, a former journalist from Shanxi, recently described the province, “It has coal; coal brought money; that brought corruption”
These stories highlight a simple truth: Where the coal industry operates, bribery and venality are likely to be rampant. But this does not have to be the case. In order to reduce – if not eliminate – such corruption, several fundamental weaknesses in the regulation of how mining contracts are allocated must be addressed
Now, after all that we should also strive to urge the governments of our countries to keep the rest of the reserves of fossil fuels trapped in the ground without extraction , even maintain the climate of our planet and make our country more transparent democracies and wisdom
blogger Bashar Tafesh
