COP28 - Numerous oil, gas and coal lobbyists at climate conference
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 the meeting in Egypt last year.
The analysis was published today by the "Kick Big Polluters Out" coalition, which is supported by Global Witness, Transparency International, Greenpeace and the Climate Action Network, among others. The analysis was based on publicly available data from the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCC).
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.
Criticism of participation
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."
Alexia Leclercq from the Start:Empowerment initiative said that no one seriously believes that Shell, Chevron or ExxonMobil would send 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 as 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. 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.
"Poisoning of the process must be stopped"
According to the press release, France, for example, has accredited representatives from TotalEnergies and EDF as part of the delegation, as has Italy with ENI. And the European Union has included 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.
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Source: www.stern.de
