 |
Scottish Power, National Grid, GSK, Hitachi, Unilever, SSE (Scottish energy company), Sky, NatWest Group, Reckitt, Sainsbury’s and Microsoft are the “principal partners” of the COP26 climate summit slated for Glasgow next month.
They may not get their money’s worth.
COP26 has lost some of its buzz due to expected high-profile no-shows, such as Chinese president Xi Jinping, who heads the No. 1 producer of greenhouse gas, and Russian boss Vladimir Putin.
Joe Biden will lead a robust US delegation to COP26, but the American president had expected a triumphant entry into Glasgow due to the approval of his aggressive plan to combat climate change.
That victory was supposed to signal a return to US climate leadership after four years of climate change denial under president Trump.
Things haven’t worked out for Biden due to West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s opposition to paying $150B to power companies to cut reliance on fossil fuels, which deals a serious blow to the climate package.
Biden will be limping into Glasgow.
Some COP26 sponsors are upset about the amateur-hour organization of the event by the British government. They complain about the breakdown in communications and sponsorship costs that have increased 30 percent since COP25 in Madrid in 2019.
COP26 is also expected to be hit with one of the largest protests in the UK. The British government has promised one of its largest policing operations to keep things under control.
COP26 may turn out to be a replay of the 1999 "Battle of Seattle" WTO protest. That would not be a pretty sight for the corporate sponsors.
The upshot: sponsors may lose out on one of the greatest greenwashing opportunities of all time.
Blue Crab Strategies, the progressive communications firm in Washington, DC, has posted a “land recognition” statement on its website to pay tribute to Indigenious people.
Here it is:
“We acknowledge that we live and work on the unceded lands of many Indigenous peoples including the Piscataway, Nacotchtank (Anacostan), Massawomeck, Manahoac, Numunuu (Comanche), Coahuiltecan, Konitsaaff, gokiyaa (Cuelcahen Nde-Lipan Apache), Tonkawa, Jumanos, O-ga-xpa Ma-zho (O-ga-xpa) and Chikashsha Yaki (Chickasaw).
“We respect the Treaties that were made on these lands and acknowledge the numerous and significant harms that were done to the Indigenous people who inhabited this land for thousands of years. We honor with gratitude these lands and the people who have stewarded them throughout the generations. We ask that our partners join us in acknowledging these communities, their elders both past and present, as well as future generations. Blue Crab Strategies also acknowledges the exclusions and erasures of many after Indigenous peoples, and are committed to dismantling the ongoing legacies of colonialism.”
Given the amount of malfeasance and misalignment around governance, strategy, resilience why isn't the "conscience" of the corporation on the Board?
Ways in which your team might be reducing your chances of media coverage and what you can do about it.
Court verdicts against corporations are increasingly topping the $100M mark. A strong corporate PR progam may be the best defense... ConocoPhillips goes overboard in applauding Biden administration's appoval of its massive Alaska oil & gas project... Target scores first 'A+' in annual racial and gender pay scorecard. Competitor Walmart gets an "F."
Joe Biden is spinnng the Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank "bailouts" as anything but. Bailouts of banks for coastal elites will bite Scranton Joe on the campaign trail... Nutbag Missouri Senator Josh Hawley blames wokeness for the SVB bailout... Ron DeSantis is positioning as a bigger patsy for Putin than Donald Trump.
Folklore holds that every person on the planet somewhere has a twin. Some years back I met mine. Yes, another me. Just what the world needs, right?
Have a comment? Send it to
Oct. 26, 2021, by Joe Honick
Your reference to the "greenwashing" conference should get some real attention...not merely because of any failures of PR but because of how much more cleverly both Xi and Putin are treating the United States and Putin. Both Republicans AND Democrats have almost always refelcted naivete in dealing with both leaders, and those realities are not lost on other country leaders reevaluating "deals" they are willing to make with us.
Right at this moment and into that conference, Biden has to deal not only with the Chinese and Russians but a formerly honorable Republican operation that has worked hard to sabotage our reputation and Biden's as should have been from all the revelations coming out of the planning and personal involvements for January 6.
The conference will proceed; right wing media will make fun of our seeming inability to be dealing with Xi and Putin. The wonder is whether any PR firms are involved in any of this as a couple used to be with Russia.