Much has been made of the fact that the leaders of certain countries have not deemed fit to attend COP26. But there is also controversy over some of the delegates that are there.
There are around 40,000 people at COP26. The largest of the official teams of negotiators is from Brazil. According to UN data, Brazil is represented by 479 delegates. Now that may sound like a lot of people but…..
There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country.
Campaigners led by Global Witness assessed the participant list published by the UN at the start of this meeting.
They found that 503 people with links to fossil fuel interests had been accredited for the climate summit. So who are these people?
They are lobbyists from the oil and gas industries who clearly have a vested interest in any measures put in place to limit fossil fuel use. The lobbyists are drawn from 27 different countries and outnumber the combined total of the eight delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the past 20 years.
They represent more than 100 fossil fuel companies, plus 30 trade associations and other membership organisations.
Many campaigners think that these lobbyists should be banned from attending. The worry is that these people are putting forward suggestions around carbon offsetting as a means to address the global crisis. While these measures are helpful, there affect is limited and the real solution is to stop mining fossil fuels.
“The fossil fuel industry has spent decades denying and delaying real action on the climate crisis, which is why this is such a huge problem,” says Murray Worthy from Global Witness.
“Their influence is one of the biggest reasons why 25 years of UN climate talks have not led to real cuts in global emissions.”
Campaign groups have likened the situation to that which occurred around smoking. They argue that the World Health Organization didn’t get serious about banning tobacco until all the lobbyists for the industry were banned from WHO meetings. They want the same treatment for oil and gas companies at COP.
“The likes of Shell and BP are inside these talks despite openly admitting to upping their production of fossil gas,” said Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory, who were also involved in the analysis.
“If we’re serious about raising ambition, then fossil fuel lobbyists should be shut out of the talks.”
