More than 600 representatives from the fossil fuel industry lobby at Cop27 climate conference With an increase of more than 25% compared to last year, it surpassed all groups affected by the climate crisis.
There are 636 lobbyists from the oil and gas industries registered to attend the UN event in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
In Glasgow the number was 503, which surpassed any country’s delegation. This year, the only country with a larger delegation is the United Arab Emirates, which hosts next year’s Cop28, which has 1,070 registered delegates, up from 176 last year.
The influence of the fossil fuel lobby on decisions
At COP27, “fossil fuel lobbyists have a greater impact than the countries and communities affected. delegations African countries and indigenous communities overshadowed by representatives of corporate interests”, said the group Kick Out the Big Pollutants campaigning against the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists in the climate negotiations.
Lobbying data compiled by Corporate Accountability, Global Witness and the Corporate Europe Observatory shows the growing influence of oil and gas interests in climate negotiations.
While many environmental groups hoping to promote the fossil fuel transition say it may be beneficial to bring private interests to the negotiating table, the size of delegations and the suspicion that industry lobbyists are joining negotiations to slow progress rather than discussing limitations risk that these benefits will outweigh. their industries.
Civil society groups fear that the increased presence of fossil fuel lobbyists will jeopardize negotiations at a crucial time amid efforts to keep the global temperature rise at 1.5°C, which scientists agree is necessary to prevent change.
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“The explosion in the number of industry delegates attending the negotiations reinforces the climate justice community’s belief that the industry sees the COP as a kind of carnival rather than a space to deal with the ongoing and looming climate crisis,” said Kwami Kpondzo. From Friends of the Earth Togo.
A coalition of civil society groups to discuss the role of private companies in the negotiations at a recent rally at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the body overseeing the COP. said Climate action will “continue to fail to address the climate crisis in a meaningful way as long as polluters have full access to policy-making processes and can unnecessarily affect and undermine the critical work of the UNFCCC”.
In response, the U.S. International Trade Council rejected any suggestion that corporate interests should be limited in climate negotiations, saying it would “harm and delay implementation”. [e] It will marginalize one of the most central groups in the UNFCCC process. ????????
This article was originally published in The Guardian and is republished by members of the environmental journalism network Covering Climate Now
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source: Noticias
