A None Too Happy Mermaid

Ahead of the COP15 negotiations over a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, a coalition of groups have unveiled a short list of nominees for The Angry Mermaid Award for the "company or lobby group is doing the most to sabotage effective action on climate change." (A waterside statue of a mermaid is a local Copenhagen landmark.) Groups short-listed include the U.S. coal industry front group, the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity; the International Air Transport Association, which has lobbied against climate legislation binding airlines to reduce emissions; Shell, which is investing in developing highly polluting tar sands; and the South African company, Sasol, which is promoting Carbon Capture and Storage as a "clean solution to the dirty business of producing liquid fuels from coal and gas." Voting is open until Sunday December 13, 2009.