How do European lobbyists frame global environmental problems? A case study of the biofuels lobbying campaign through the lens of a major agroindustry

Abstract

The literature on global problems is often focused on the role of states, International Organizations, and transnational advocacy networks as the "primary definers" of emerging issues. This paper highlights the underrated importance of major transnational companies. Combining an ethnography in a global food company, and a study of lobbying in Brussels, it explores the E.U. policies of "biofuels". How the debates inside this global company-threatened in its supplies of agricultural products by the growing demand for biofuels-are dealing with this challenge? How are the lobbyists defining a "green" frame, targeting biofuels as an ecological dead-end? The company was able to develop links with environmental NGOs, giving birth to loose coalitions of strange bedfellows which trigger a redefinition of the quest for tomorrow fuels.