At least 1,773 delegates to the COP29 climate summit represent the interests of the fossil fuel industry (oil, coal and gas), according to the NGO Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO). They are lower than last year’s all-time record in Dubai (2,400), but together they exceed almost all the country delegations present at the convention.
KBPO based its analysis on the provisional list of UN accreditations for this COP. “This figure highlights the disproportionate presence of polluters year after year,” explains the organization. Only three states have more delegates to this summit: host country Azerbaijan with 2,229, next COP organizer Brazil with 1,914 and Turkey with 1,862.
“Every year the fossil fuel lobby sneaks its way to the top,” says Akibonde Oluwafemi of the African Coalition to Make Polluters Pay. “They surround the decision-making process of the COP and thus stifle the possibility of taking concrete measures against climate change. »
KBPO analysis shows that most fossil delegates enter the summit as members of international trade organizations. There are representatives from Total Energies, Chevron, Exxon, Shell and Eni. Japan included coal giant Sumitomo in its official delegation. Canada to oil producers Suncor and Tourmaline, according to the KBPO tally.
11,000 since there were summits
Preventing these lobbyists from participating in climate negotiations is a historic demand of environmental groups. At summits, there is even a working group that debates how to approach this issue, even if no agreement is reached. As an example, it should be noted that the World Health Organization (WHO), which is also a United Nations agency, does not allow tobacco industry representatives to attend anti-tobacco summits.
Since the start of climate summits at the end of the 20th century, more than 11,000 delegates from oil and coal companies have attended climate negotiations. Although it has been known since the beginning of the meetings that greenhouse gas emissions mainly come from fossil fuels, these were only mentioned for the first time in a final summit decision in the edition of Glasgow in 2021. And the first time countries agreed on “transitioning away from fossil fuels” took place last year.
In this sense, a group of climate policy experts, including former UN Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon, and former President of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueras, have requested that COPs cannot be organized in countries. who are not really determined to abandon these fuels. “We need clear criteria to exclude states that do not support the ‘transition’ from fossil fuels,” they wrote.
Precisely, the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, declared in his opening speech at COP29 that oil, coal and gas are “natural resources” like any other and that they constitute “a gift of God “. He also demanded that countries like his not be demonized for extracting and selling them to “put them in a market that needs them.”
In this open letter, they call for “reform from the top” because “the current format simply cannot achieve the change needed at the speed and scale needed.” “We need to move from the negotiation format to the implementation format, allowing the COPs to make commitments to ensure this transition away from fossil fuels.
