At least 2,456 fuel lobbyists have been given access to the COP28 summit in Dubai, a climate change coalition has claimed.
Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) called it an “unprecedented presence” and said representatives of some of the world’s biggest polluters were there.
It said fuel lobbyists were collectively the biggest delegation and received more passes than the 10 most vulnerable nations to climate change combined (1,609).
Many of the fossil fuel lobbyists are said to have gained access by being part of a trade organisation.
KBPO said the largest was the Geneva-based International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), who it said brought 116 people – including representatives from Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor.
France also brought “fossil fuel giants” EDF as part of its country delegation, said KBPO.
BP, ExxonMobil and ENI staff were also said to be among those in the European Union group.
Kick Big Polluters Out is a coalition of more than 450 international groups that support action on climate change.
It includes the likes of Greenpeace and ActionAid as well as many smaller local or regional organisations.
The coalition said it had analysed the provisional list of COP28 delegates “line-by-line in the most in-depth study into the fossil fuel industry’s presence at any talks to date”.
COP28 is running until 12 December in Dubai. Pic: AP
It said its estimate was probably conservative as it only counted people who openly declared their connection to fossil fuels.
It’s also a big jump on its count from the last COP in Egypt (636) and the 503 it counted at Glasgow the year before.
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Alexia Leclercq – from environmental education group Start:Empowerment – was one of several campaigners to speak out.
“Big polluters’ poisonous presence has bogged us down for years, keeping us from advancing the pathways needed to keep fossil fuels in the ground,” she said.
“They are the reason COP28 is clouded in a fog of climate denial, not climate reality.”
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