Observers at the COP climate summits can now choose to make public who is paying for their participation, under new transparency guidelines introduced by the UN climate change body in response to pressure over the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists on the talks.
For the first time this year, anyone who is not part of a country’s official delegation has the option of disclosing the direct source of funding for them to take part at COP30 in Belèm. The measure applies to a large number of participants, including civil society organisations, business representatives, academia and Indigenous groups.
Campaigners from the “Kick Big Polluters Out” coalition have welcomed the move as a “much needed step towards ending big polluters’ stranglehold over climate action”.
“From deals behind closed doors to weakening multilateral agreements, the fossil fuel industry has been using their influence to rig the game at COP for too long,” said Katie Williams, of the UK Youth Climate Coalition. “These changes to COP registration are a positive move that will make it clear who is gambling with our collective future.”
Pressure to keep polluters out
Almost 1,800 fossil fuel lobbyists were given access to last year’s COP29 talks in Azerbaijan, according to analysis by Kick Big Polluters Out – more than the delegates of the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries combined.
That was fewer than at COP28 in Dubai – around 2,450 – but that conference saw a larger number of participants overall, at more than 80,000 compared with around 56,000 in Baku.
Since COP28, delegates have been required to disclose their affiliation, meaning that those working for fossil fuel companies have had to be clear about their ties.
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Calls for stronger rules to keep fossil fuel influence out of UN climate talks have been growing louder.
Climate Home revealed last month that PR giant Edelman was awarded a media strategy contract with the COP30 presidency despite its work with Shell in what campaigners described as an obvious conflict of interest. The United Nations Development Programme, which handled the contract, said it was compliant with the UN agency’s policies.
Failure to disclose is a ‘major red flag’
While the new disclosure of funding for COP attendance is not compulsory, the UN climate body (UNFCCC) will make public an attendee’s decision not to volunteer the information in the official list of participants released during the climate summit.
A spokesperson for Kick Big Polluters Out told Climate Home that the failure to disclose the information will be seen as “a major red flag”.
“Those with ties to big polluters that fail to be honest about who and what they represent will open themselves to even greater public scrutiny, and further legitimise why they should not be allowed to shape the global response to climate change,” they added.
Under the new rules, COP observers will also be given the option of explicitly declaring that their participation aligns with the objective of the UN climate change convention and the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Myriam Douo, global industry campaigner at Oil Change International, said that “no Big Oil executive can credibly claim their objectives are aligned” with the UN climate convention “while continuing to drill and cause destruction to our planet and communities”.
Many “lobbyists” still exempted from rule
Many industry representatives register for COPs as “observers” through trade associations. But the new guidelines would not have applied to the majority of those identified by campaigners as fossil fuel lobbyists last year.
Just over two-thirds – 68% – of them gained access to the COP29 talks through official national delegations, either with a “party” or “party overflow” badge, according to research published by Transparency International.
These participants are required to publicly disclose their affiliation, but are currently exempted from the new measures on funding.
Campaigners want the UNFCCC to go further and introduce a conflict of interest policy and an “accountability framework” that fully protects climate diplomacy from the influence of lobbyists from polluting industries.
Rachitaa Gupta of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) said, until that happens, “the legitimacy of these talks will remain deeply in question”.
