Energy groups warn of tech companies' participation in COP31 over China connection

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(The Center Square) – A coalition of energy and policy organizations sent a letter to President Donald Trump expressing concern over the harm to national security that is posed by publicly traded U.S. companies – such as Amazon, Apple, and Google – being involved in the climate convention, COP31.

Senior Fellow at the Energy & Environment Legal Institute as well as former Trump administration EPA Transition Team Advisor Steve Milloy told The Center Square: “All US companies, public traded or not, that are involved in COP31 represent a threat to the nation.”

COP31 is an annual climate change conference put on by the United Nations.

Milloy told The Center Square that the letter to Trump “targets publicly traded tech companies like Amazon, Apple and Google for two reasons.”

“First, as publicly traded companies that have an affirmative legal duty to be honest when discussing issues related to their business, supporting COP31 is fundamentally dishonest because there is nothing these companies can do to affect climate,” Milloy said.

“So talking about it like they can is inherently dishonest,” Milloy said. “Next, these tech companies have various national security activities and responsibilities.”

Milloy said China pushes climate-related actions at these conferences in effort to hurt U.S. national security. 

“Companies involved in our national security should not be teaming up with Communist China against our national security," he said. “The President should bar federal contractors with national security obligations from participating in a process that only works to the benefit of Communist China.”

Signatories of the letter include Milloy’s organization Energy & Environment Legal Institute along with the American Energy Institute, CFACT,  Heartland Impact, The Heartland Institute, and Truth in Energy and Climate.

In their letter, the groups expressed support for Trump’s decision to withdraw from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, while also requesting that the president “take action to ensure that U.S. companies attending the conference do not violate the law and undercut U.S. Policy.”

The letter notes that “both federal law and SEC regulations prohibit [Amazon, Apple and Google] from making false and misleading statements.

“Not only are these companies misleading the public and potentially violating the law by giving the public and investors the impression that they are doing something about supposed ‘climate change,’ but they are also undercutting U.S. foreign policy and national security by participating in COP31,” the letter said.

The Center Square reached out to Amazon, Google, Apple, UN Climate Change, and the White House Press Office for comment. None responded by publishing.

President of The Heartland Institute James Taylor told The Center Square that "publicly traded companies getting in bed with UN global climate governance is a repeat of the societal-wide elimination of our freedoms that took place when government teamed up with big corporations under the guise of fighting COVID and fighting online 'misinformation.'”

“Large corporations should never be allowed to do governments' dirty work that either cannot find the votes to pass through normal legislative processes or is expressly prohibited by our Constitution,” Taylor said

COP31 began on Monday in Turkey.

The climate summit intends to focus on the “implementation of climate solutions and progressing a global energy transition that drives economic growth, more jobs, food security, better health and safety and affordable clean energy.”