By Edu Abade,
In their quest to sustain exploitation and exploration of Africa’s abundant oil and gas resources, multinational oil and gas giants including Shell, Chevron, BP and others have increased their fossil fuel lobbyists by over 25 per cent at the ongoing 27th edition of the Committee of the Parties (COP27) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.
A document released by civil society groups participating in the conference revealed that no fewer than 636 fossil fuel lobbyists affiliated with some of the world’s biggest polluting oil and gas giants were registered for the COP27 climate talks.
The groups insisted that this year’s lobbyists represent an increase of over 25 per cent from COP26 in their efforts to influence the fossil fuel industry at the climate talks, which they said, was already rife with accusations of civil society censorship and corporate influence.
Data analysis of the United Nation’s provisional list of attendants by Corporate Accountability, Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Global Witness (GW), reveals the scale at which corporate actors with stakes in the continued burning of fossil fuels have been enjoying access to the critical talks. The findings are giving fuel to a growing global push to safeguard the talks from interference of polluters.
Also, researchers confirmed that in spite of efforts to end carbon emissions globally to mitigate the impacts of climate change, there is a marked increase in the number of registered lobbyists, either directly affiliated with fossil fuel corporations represented by Shell, Chevron and BP or companies attending, as members of delegations that act on behalf of the oil and gas industry.
The analysis found that oil and gas influence at the COP is growing, as no fewer than 636 fossil fuel lobbyists registered at the COP27, an increase of over 25 per cent from COP26 held last year in Glasgow. Besides the United Arabs Emirate (UAE), which registered 1,070 delegates compared to 176 last year, there are more fossil fuel lobbyists than any single national delegation and that 70 of their delegation this year are fossil fuel lobbyists.
“Despite being tagged an ‘African COP’, there are more fossil fuel lobbyists registered than any national delegation from the African continent. About 29 countries have fossil fuel lobbyists in their national delegations. After the UAE, Russia has 33 lobbyists, being the second largest.
“According to GermanWatch, there are more fossil fuel lobbyists registered than representatives of Puerto Rico, Myanmar, Haiti, Philippines, Mozambique, The Bahamas, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Thailand, Nepal being the 10 countries most impacted by climate change,” the groups said.
This followed as environmental activists from the Global South, indigenous communities and others, who are disproportionately bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, have effectively been alienated from the talks due to high costs, visa challenges and repressive actions of the host country, Egypt.
A spokesman for the groups, said: “With time running out to avert climate disaster, major talks like COP27 absolutely must advance concrete action to stop the toxic practices of the fossil fuel industry causing more damage to the climate than any other industry. The extraordinary presence of a large number of the industry’s lobbyists at the talks is, therefore, a twisted joke at the expense of people and the planet.
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“This comes at a time when people are suffering globally from financial strains caused by high energy prices and millions more from the disastrous impacts of the climate crisis. Rather than being the start of the real climate action needed, COP27 looks set to be a festival of fossil fuels and their polluting friends, buoyed by recent bumper profits.
“Tobacco lobbyists will not be welcome at health conferences, arms dealers cannot promote their trade at peace conventions, and as such, oil and gas giants perpetuating the global fossil fuel addiction should not be allowed at a climate conference. It is time governments, especially those of African countries, got out of the pockets of polluters, come to their senses and help make the COP27 the success the world vitally needs it to be.”
The groups added that the presence of lobbyists at the COP27 does not end with the fossil fuel industry, as other polluting industries deeply implicated in the climate crisis, such as finance, agricultural business and transportation are also in attendance, although they are not included in this particular analysis.
These new findings build on calls in recent years to protect the integrity of the UN’s climate negotiations by establishing clear conflict of interest policies. In recent years countries collectively representing almost 70 per cent of the world’s population requested these conflicts of interest be addressed.
Director of Programmes, Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Phillip Jakpor, said: ” A lot of lip service has been paid to the COP27 being the so-called African one, but how do the parties address the dire climate impacts on the continent, when the fossil fuel delegation is larger than that of any African country?
“Well over 450 organisations around the world are calling on world governments to do what they should have done from day one. It is time to kick Big Polluters out! No more writing the rules or bankrolling the climate talks.”
A broad coalition, including those who conducted the analysis, are demanding that the UNFCCC and countries finally reject big polluters from participating in climate talks and are demanding an accountability framework that clearly excludes organisations that have financial or vested interests in the production or burning of fossil fuels.
This is the second COP in which the organisations have conducted the analysis since there were a total of 503 fossil fuel lobbyists registered in Glasgow last year.
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