Civil society coalition denounces record-breaking number of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28
'Record number of fossil fuel lobbyists get access to Cop28 climate talks', 5 December 2023
At least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the Cop28 climate negotiations...
The figure calculated by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition is a record number... with almost four times as many industry-affiliated lobbyists than the number registered for Cop27 in Sharm el-sheikh – which itself was a record year.
Lobbyists vying to push the interests of oil and gas companies such as Shell, Total and ExxonMobil outnumber every country delegation apart from Brazil (3,081), which is expected to run Cop30 in 2025, and the host country, which registered 4,409 attenders.
Fossil fuel lobbyists also outnumber official Indigenous representatives (316) by seven to one...
The data on lobbyists was compiled by the organisations Corporate Accountability, Global Witness and Corporate Europe Observatory from the UN’s provisional list of about 84,000 participants at Cop28, and is the most in-depth study into fossil fuel industry presence at any talks to date. It found:
- Fossil fuel lobbyists received more passes than the combined total of delegates (1,609) from the 10 most climate vulnerable countries combined, including Somalia, Chad, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Sudan.
- Many fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access as part of a trade association, of which nine of the 10 largest came from the global north. This included the Geneva-based International Emissions Trading Association, which brought 116 people including representatives from Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor.
“You would not invite arms dealers to a peace conference. Countries and communities are here negotiating for their lives, while the fossil companies and their enablers are here for their wallets. These dirty tricks must not stop us from achieving a far, fast, full, and funded phase-out."David Tong, Global Industry Campaign Manager, Oil Change International