Fossil fuel lobbyists populate COP28

The global community is actually running out of time to change course on climate protection. The COP28 conference is once again raising hopes of real change. However, according to an analysis, these hopes are being dashed. It turns out that the number of lobbyists for coal, gas and oil is four times as high as it was last time.

According to a data analysis by activists, at least 2456 lobbyists for coal, oil and gas are officially accredited at the World Climate Conference in Dubai - four times more than at last year's meeting in Egypt. The analysis was published by the "Kick Big Polluters Out" coalition, which is supported by Global Witness, Transparency International, Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network, among others. Publicly available data from the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCC) was analyzed.

According to the analysis, lobbyists received more access passes than all delegations from the ten most vulnerable countries to global warming. Somalia, Chad, Niger, Guinea-Bissau, Micronesia, Tonga, Eritrea, Sudan, Liberia and the Solomon Islands only have a total of 1509 delegates.

David Tong from Oil Change International denounced the fact that the fossil fuel industry and its supporters in many governments continue to invest billions in climate-damaging businesses - with disastrous consequences for people and the planet. It was therefore clear to him: "Lobbyists for coal, gas and oil must be thrown out of COP28."

Shell, Exxon and co. are not only watching

Alexia Leclercq from the Start:Empowerment initiative said that no one seriously believes that Shell, Chevron or ExxonMobil sent their lobbyists to Dubai just to passively observe the conference. "The poisoned presence of the big polluters has distracted us for years and prevented us from finding ways to keep fossil fuels in the ground."

The initiative also pointed out that there were around eight times as many fossil fuel lobbyists at the conference of almost 200 states than official representatives of indigenous communities (316). According to the UN, a record number of around 97,000 participants were registered for the two-week meeting in the United Arab Emirates.

Leading German climate researcher Ottmar Edenhofer is not surprised by the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists at the largest climate conference of all time. "We have to leave the majority of fossil resources and reserves of coal, oil and gas in the ground, which essentially means devaluing the assets of oil, coal and gas," said the Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. "You had to expect that this would not simply be accepted, but that they would then try to defend themselves against it."

Fossil industry is a power factor

Climate economist Edenhofer says: "The influence would also be great if the conference were smaller. The fossil fuel industry is a huge power factor and a major economic factor. That is obvious."

He believes it is crucial that the prices for the use of climate-damaging energy sources rise so that they become unprofitable. "Strong international CO2 price signals are needed. That is why it is not enough to simply triple renewable energy sources and increase energy efficiency." The EU's announcement that it intends to introduce climate tariffs means that countries such as India, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are now discussing the introduction of CO2 prices.

According to the analysis, there were 636 lobbyists for coal, oil and gas in Sharm el-Sheikh last year and 503 in Glasgow in 2021. According to the report, France, for example, accredited representatives from TotalEnergies and EDF as part of the delegation, as did Italy with ENI. And the European Union has employees from BP, ENI and ExxonMobil.

Joseph Sikulu from the environmental organization 350.org in the Pacific region said: "We come here to fight for our survival - what chance do we have if our voices are stifled by the influence of big polluters? This poisoning of the process must be stopped."

Only delegates who openly disclose their links to fossil fuel interests were counted for the analysis. The authors relied exclusively on public sources such as company websites, media reports or databases such as InfluenceMap for comparison.