At least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists were allowed access to COP29 Climate in Baku, according to a count produced by the NGO coalition Kick Big Polluters Out. Despite everything, discussions are moving forward.
« For several years the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists has intensified at the COPs. This year: 1,773 of them are present at COP29, more than the delegation of each country, except Azerbaijan, Brazil and Turkey.alerts Gaïa Febvre, international policy manager at the Climate Action Network. 1,773, here is the count carried out this year by the coalition of NGOs Kick Big Polluters Out.
Fossil fuel lobbyists thus risk eclipsing delegations from the most vulnerable countries. Indeed, these lobbyists are more numerous than the delegates of the ten most vulnerable nations to the climate combined (1033 delegates): Chad, the Solomon Islands, Niger, Micronesia, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, the Tonga Islands, Eritrea, Sudan and Mali.
Lobbyists from different backgrounds
Most of these lobbyists have access to the COP through a professional association. The largest delegation comes from the International Emissions Trading Association, which brings together 43 people, including representatives from TotalEnergies and Glencore. Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, Shell and Eni, for their part, bring together a combined total of 39 lobbyists.
According to Kick Big Polluters Out, Japan brought coal giant Sumitomo directly into its delegation, Canada oil producers Suncor and Tourmaline. Italy, for its part, brought employees from energy giants Eni and Enel.
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Kick Big Polluters Out only counts as fossil fuel lobbyists those organizations or delegations for which it is reasonable to assume that they aim to influence the formulation or implementation of policies or laws in the interest of fossil fuels. a fossil fuel company and its shareholders.
« We will continue to fight so that the voice of oil and gas companies does not alter these crucial negotiations and call on the UNCAC to implement measures to prevent their arrival”warns Gaïa Febvre.
In Dubai, the coalition of NGOs Kick Big Polluters Out counted “ at least ” 2,456 lobbyists, almost four times more than at COP27. “ If it is less than in Dubai, it is also because there are fewer people this year: around 53,000 compared to 85,000 at COP28. shares Gaïa Febvre. Proportionally, there are therefore more lobbyists in Baku than in Dubai.
A new carbon market created
Despite the presence of these lobbyists, things are moving forward. While the COP28 failed to agree on the rules governing carbon marketsCOP29 opened with the adoption of article 6.4 of the Paris agreement on carbon markets. Supervised by the UN and open to companies and states. “ In this market, countries, companies or even individuals will be able to buy creditsexplains Judith Lachnitt, international climate and food sovereignty advocacy officer at Secours Catholique – Caritas. The latter will be generated by financing projects to reduce greenhouse gases or carbon sequestration.”
This new carbon market will require carbon credit project leaders to identify and address the possible negative environmental and social impacts of their projects and to explain how their activities contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
1.300 billion dollars per year
COP29 is mainly a financing COP. In Copenhagen in 2009, developed countries committed to providing $100 billion per year from 2020 to developing countries in order to mitigate and adapt to climate change and promote low-carbon technologies. COP29 must define the new climate finance target (New Collective Quantified GoaL, NCQG). It will have to replace the objective of 100 billion from 2025.
The largest negotiating bloc, the G77 + China, agreed on a new target for the NCQG. They will ask for 1,300 billion dollars per year by 2030. The group of independent experts on climate finance (IHLEG) led by the economist Nicholas Stern proposed 1,000 billion dollars per year by 2030 for the countries emerging and developing countries, excluding China, of which 50% would come from the private sector.
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