"COP27: BP chief listed as delegate for Mauritania" 11 November 2022

The BBC has learned that BP chief executive Bernard Looney was registered as a poor country delegate for COP27. Mr Looney is on the official UN lists as a delegate from Mauritania, a west African nation where BP has major investments. Four other BP employees are also included as part of the Mauritania team here. BP says Mr Looney was invited to COP27 by the Mauritanians for a signing ceremony and is no longer here.

There has been ongoing controversy about the presence of delegates at this conference who represent large oil and gas firms...

BP say that Mr Looney was invited by the Mauritanian delegation to join a meeting and signing ceremony alongside COP27 for a "significant agreement on hydrogen". For that purpose, the Mauritanian team included him on the official list of participants, entitling him to access the "blue zone" at COP27, the area reserved for government delegations and where the key negotiations take place.

Mr Looney and four senior BP colleagues, were here to sign an agreement with Mauritania to explore the development of a green hydrogen facility in the country...

Campaigners were not happy with the inclusion of five senior BP executives as part of a country delegation...

...this year, there are more fossil fuel lobbyists than total delegates from the ten countries most impacted by climate change, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mozambique. The biggest single delegation at COP27 is from the United Arab Emirates, who will host COP28 next year. They have 1,073 people on the ground here, up from just 170 last year. The analysis found that 70 of that delegation were connected to fossil fuel extraction.

Russia's delegation has 33 lobbyists for oil and gas in their delegation of 150.