As we all know, climate change is producing freak weather patterns which is adding to the suffering of already hungry people in developing countries. We have seen severe flooding in regions like Pakistan, while last summer, drought in the USA pushed wheat prices up from $6 a bushel to $9 a bushell.

And while we talk about cutting emissions, our commitment to renewables and help with climate change finance for vulnerable countries, the City of London is bankrolling fossil fuels. We will never be able to fix climate change while dirty energy has an unfair influence on government.

The revolving door between government, the financial sector and big oil, gas and coal allows a scale of lobbying which ensures that regulations will always be made in favour of those who profit from fossil fuels at the expense of vulnerable nations and the environment.

According to World Development Movement figures, between 2012 our five largest banks underwrote £96.5 billion in corporate bonds for fossil fuel companies and all five have people on their boards of directors with links to the fossil fuel industry. Even more disturbing is that a third of UK government ministers have links, past and present, with either fossil fuel companies or those that finance them.

For example, Lord Browne, former CEO of BP and now chairman of Cuadrilla, is an adviser to the government. He is also managing director of Riverstone Holdings, which has oil and gas investments in the North Sea. Ben Moxham, who worked for Browne at BP and Riverstone, is now Cameron’s energy adviser.

The Conservative party has received £550,000 from Ian Taylor CEO of Vitol, while Alan Duncan, an international development minister, worked for Vitol in the 1990s.

George Osborne’s father in law, Lord Howell, is president of the British Institute for Energy Economics who are funded by Shell and BP. Lord Howell left the Foreign Office last year.

Tallow Oil’s CEO Aiden Heavey donated £10,000 to Michael Gove prior to the general election.

So therefore, I ask the question: who pays when the piper calls the tune?

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