ABSTRACT
The Alliance for Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Regulation–European Union (EU) has argued that 'The enormous influence of corporate lobbyists undermines democracy and all too frequently results in postponing, weakening or blocking urgently needed progress in EU social, environmental and consumer protections.' In addition to corporate lobbying, corporate political contributions became a growing concern for investors during 2005. Oil companies were in the spotlight in 2005 for lobbying on climate change. In 2005 the private financial sector in rich countries lobbied hard for regulatory changes in poor countries that would do little to address these problems, and their own culpability in the current and future odious debts of the developing world. The power of the private financial institutions in shaping the policies of the G8 reminds clearly that money talks. The voluntary corporate responsibility policy community in the United Kingdom is grappling with the implications of this shift of attention to the 'political bottom line' was illustrated by several new publications.
