The Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) is an environmentalist campaign that targets individuals involved in conventional energy business or who advocate for the use of conventional energy. It accuses targeted individuals of being guilty of what it calls “climate crimes,” equating advocacy for conventional energy with criminal bribery and operating conventional energy with money laundering. ¹

CARP also criticizes individuals for advocating for repealing regulations on conventional energy production and for supporting the Trump administration’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement. ^{2 3}

Background

The Climate Accountability Research Project is a campaign that was founded in 2024 with support from 350.org, Climate Clock, the Global Center for Climate Justice, Greenpeace, and Summer of Heat. ⁴ It publishes information on individuals whom it claims are responsible for so-called “climate destruction” and promotes the idea that they are guilty of what it determines to be “climate crimes.”  ⁵

CARP is critical of individuals who fund groups that oppose the environmentalist idea that carbon emissions cause climate disasters, individuals who lobby against environmentalist energy initiatives, or individuals skeptical that humans are causing climate disasters. It reports that it has consulted the advice of over 300 organizations to choose which individuals to campaign against. It lists the Global Center for Climate Justice, Climate Defiance, Summer of Heat, Climate Clock, Greenpeace, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) as organizations that it has consulted. ⁶

Climate Criminals Campaign

The Climate Accountability Research Project announced the launch of its Climate Criminals campaign on July 22, 2024, which the group billed “Climate Emergency Day.” The group published dossiers on 24 individuals, claiming that it is “charging” them with so-called crimes against the environment. The campaign advocates for individuals to petition the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to conduct investigations and prosecutions over the alleged crimes. The press release announcing the campaign highlights that individuals it is campaigning against are overwhelmingly male and white. ⁷

CARP’s Climate Criminals campaign targets individuals who are heads of large conventional energy companies, heads of large finance companies that finance conventional energy companies, and who advocate for the use of conventional energy. ⁸ Notable targets include JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Donors Trust CEO Lawson Bader, ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts, and Heartland Institute President James Taylor. ⁹

CARP’s Climate Criminals campaign promotes ideas that individuals involved in conventional energy businesses, financing, or advocacy are “allegedly guilty” of crimes by equating financing conventional energy projects or facilitating conventional energy projects with criminal money laundering. It also equates criminal bribery with engaging in advocacy or grantmaking in support of the use of conventional energy sources. ¹⁰

Climate Criminals’ webpage on James Taylor condemns him for leading the Heartland Institute because it publishes research that contests claims of global warming from data sources that do not meet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) temperature recording standards and it uses its own data collection to counter such claims. It also condemns him for personally endorsing former President Donald Trump’s political campaign based on his administration’s record of rolling back regulations on conventional energy companies, for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, and for stating that data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) dispels claims of global warming. ¹¹

CARP advocates for environmental activists to confront the so-called “climate criminals” and disrupt them by engaging in activities such as protesting events or “interrupting” their travel to speaking engagements. ¹²

Leadership

Chuck Collins is a co-founder of the Climate Accountability Research Project and is a program director for the left-wing Institute for Policy Studies, working as the co-editor of inequality.org. ¹³ Collins has also been involved with Patriotic Millionaires and United for a Fair Economy (UFE), working as executive director of UFE until 2001 and program director until 2005. He has written several books on how tax revenues can be increased by raising taxes on inheritances and books that criticize tax strategies of wealthy individuals. ¹⁴

1. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
2. “James M Taylor.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/james-taylor.
3. “Mandy Gunasekara.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/mandy-gunasekara.
4. “James M Taylor.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/james-taylor.
5. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
6. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
7. “Press & Media.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/press.
8. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
9. “2024 Climate Criminals.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/2024-climate-criminals-profiles.
10. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
11. “James M Taylor.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/james-taylor.
12. “About Us.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/about-us.
13. “Press & Media.” Climate Criminals. Accessed August 11, 2024. https://www.climatecriminals.org/press.
14. “Chuck Collins.” Institute for Policy Studies, August 1, 2024. https://ips-dc.org/ips_author/chuck-collins/.