Concerns about Lobbyists at COP29

Is the Cop system no longer ‘fit for purpose’?

Future UN climate summits should be held only in countries that can show clear support for climate action and have stricter rules on fossil fuel lobbying, according to a group of influential climate policy experts.

The group includes former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, the former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, the former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres and the prominent climate scientist Johan Rockström.

They have written to the UN demanding the current complex process of annual “conferences of the parties” under the UN framework convention on climate change – the Paris agreement’s parent treaty – be streamlined, and meetings held more frequently, with more of a voice given to developing countries.

“It is now clear that the Cop is no longer fit for purpose. We need a shift from negotiation to implementation,” they wrote.

Concerns about Lobbyists at COP29

Other critics have used even stronger language. Graham Gordon, Christian Aid’s Head of Global Advocacy, said that “having fossil fuel lobbyists at a climate summit is like inviting a drug dealer to a rehab centre.”

And David Tong from campaign group Oil Change International told AFP that “It’s like tobacco lobbyists at a conference on lung cancer.”

The frustration is palpable.

At least 1,773 coal, oil, and gas lobbyists have been granted access to the United Nations climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan. The report raises serious concerns about the planet-heating industry’s influence on the negotiations.

Those lobbyists outnumber the delegations of almost every country at the conference, the analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition shows, with the only exceptions being this year’s host country, Azerbaijan, next year’s host Brazil, and Turkey.

Sarah McArthur, an activist with the environmental group UK Youth Climate Coalition, which is a member of the KBPO coalition, said: “Cop29 kicked off with the revelation that fossil fuel deals were on the agenda, laying bare the ways that industry’s constant presence has delayed and weakened progress for years. The fossil fuel industry is driven by their financial bottom line, which is fundamentally opposed to what is needed to stop the climate crisis, namely, the urgent and just phaseout of fossil fuels.”

The 10 most climate-vulnerable nations have only a combined 1,033 delegates at the negotiations. “Industry presence is dwarfing that of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis,” the analysis says.

Today is “peace, relief and recovery” day at Cop29 in Baku, a fitting theme for a year in which horrific violence has hit millions in countries such as Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan and the DRC.

Researchers suggest that climate change has fuelled some major conflicts in recent history, though they are quick to stress it is just one factor among many. Increasingly scarce water supplies are among the risks for future wars – a finding that may be of particular concern to host country Azerbaijan, which depends on upstream sources outside of its borders for most of its water. (For a small note of hope: as economies switch from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, conflicts over energy resources may well decline.)

Many world leaders took note of the aggression rocking the world in their speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday. Leaders from across the geopolitical divide, such as Belarus and the EU, spoke about violent imperialism and the need for peace. Several leaders criticised Israel’s bombing of Gaza and the muted international response.

“How can we work together for our shared future when some are deemed unworthy of life?” asked the crown prince of Jordan, Al Hussein bin Abdullah II. He was one of the few to draw an explicit link between war and climate, explaining how conflict compounds the environmental threats that people face. It’s a problem felt particularly acutely in Jordan, where refugees make up an estimated one-third of the population.

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