Ahmad Gharabli | Afp | Getty Images SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt — More than 600 representatives of the fossil fuel industry have registered to attend the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, according to an analysis by campaign groups, reflecting an increase of more than 25 percent since last year. The sharp jump in participants associated with some of the world’s biggest polluting oil and gas giants at the flagship UN climate conference is seen as reflecting the increasing influence of the fossil fuel industry to shape the debate. Campaigners described the findings as a “twisted joke” and said it appeared to set the stage for COP27 to be “a festival of fossil fuels and their polluting friends, boosted by recent big profits”. A spokesman for Egypt’s COP presidency was not immediately available to comment on the report’s findings. Some 35,000 delegates from nearly 200 countries are expected to gather in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss collective action to tackle the climate emergency. An analysis of data from the UN’s provisional list of named participants by campaign groups Corporate Accountability, Corporate Europe Observatory and Global Witness found that 636 fossil fuel lobbyists had registered to take part in the talks. This reflects an increase of more than 100 compared to last year’s talks in Glasgow, Scotland. It means more fossil fuel lobbyists are represented at the two-week summit than any other country except the United Arab Emirates, which has 1,070 delegates registered compared to 176 last year. The figures also showed that more representatives of the fossil fuel industry were to attend COP27 than any national delegation from the African continent, despite the talks being labeled the “Africa COP”. The researchers scoured the UN’s provisional list of named participants to count the number of people registered as either acting on behalf of the fossil fuel industry or those directly linked to oil and gas companies such as BP, Shell and Chevron.
“Extraordinary presence” of the fossil fuel industry
“As time runs out to avert climate catastrophe, major talks like COP27 must absolutely promote concrete action to stop the toxic practices of the fossil fuel industry which causes more climate damage than any other industry,” said a spokesperson for the groups. “The extraordinary presence of this industry’s lobbyists in these talks is therefore a twisted joke at the expense of both people and the planet,” they added. Certainly, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas is the main driver of the climate crisis. A series of major UN reports published in recent weeks provided a grim assessment of how close the planet is to irreversible climate collapse, warning that there is no “credible pathway” to limit global warming to the critical temperature threshold of 1, 5 degrees Celsius. “A lot of talk has been made about this so-called African COP, but how are you going to deal with the dire climate impacts on the continent when the fossil fuel shipment is greater than that of any African country?” said Philip Jakpor of Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa. “More than 450 organizations around the world are calling on world governments to do what they should have done from day one,” Jakpor said in a statement. “It’s time to kick out the Big Polluters! No more writing the rules or funding the climate talks.”
