Lobbyists and COP 28

Yesterday we noted that COP 28 in Dubai involved some 85,000 participants. While many of those participants were there in good faith trying to negotiate the most ambitious agreement possible, fossil fuel and other major emitters of greenhouse gases were also represented by their lobbyists trying to protect their interests.

For the first time, the United Nations required attendees to disclose their affiliations at COP 28 and the Associated Press counted at 1,300 attendees were their on behalf oil, gas and coal interests, three times as many as at COP 27 in 2022. Fossil fuel lobbyists weren’t the only ones there in record numbers, the meat and dairy industries, as well as other agribusinesses, also doubled their representation.

The science is clear, greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by 43% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels to limit temperature rise to the Paris Agreement’s target of no more 1.5 degrees Celsius. It would seem self-evident that in order to reduce emissions we need to transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy and reduce the amount of methane produced by the agricultural sector. However the world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions to their operations that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over and the global dairy industry has plans to grow by more than 70% by 2030.

At events like COP 28, the objective of fossil fuel and agribusiness lobbyists is to muddy the waters enough that they can carry on emitting greenhouse gases while paying lip service to climate change. COP 28 produced an Oil & Gas Decarbonization Charter and a Declaration on Sustainable Agriculture, Resilient Food Systems, and Climate Action, however neither is legally binding. At the same time, they draw attention to unproven technology like carbon capture and storage as a way to continue with business as usual.