Global Courant
The United Nations announced on Thursday that delegates attending its annual climate summit will be required to disclose their membership, a move to allay concerns about undue influence. This decision is intended to quell the presence of fossil fuel company lobbyists posing as country delegates at the Conferences of the Parties. required.
The United Nations will require delegates attending the annual climate summit to disclose their membership in an effort to quell undue influence by fossil fuel companies and others, officials said Thursday.
Climate activists have long complained that the so-called Conferences of the Parties, or COPs, are undermined by lobbyists from oil and gas companies who attend under the guise of country delegates. Entrants will also be asked to provide optional information about their relationship with the government agency or organization that nominated them and those who refuse to do so will be flagged accordingly.
Civil society groups welcomed the decision, which will also apply to them, but said participants would also have to disclose who is funding their participation.
“Addressing the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry and other major polluters must begin, not end, with this step forward,” said Tasneem Essop, executive director of the umbrella environmental organization Climate Action Network International.
The measure will be formally announced in the coming days, but was confirmed to The Associated Press by the UN climate agency.
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It comes as negotiators from nearly 200 countries wrap up two weeks of talks in Bonn, Germany, in preparation for this year’s COP28 climate summit in Dubai.
Top host United Arab Emirates has come under scrutiny from campaigners and Western lawmakers for announcing that Industry Minister Sultan al-Jaber, who is also an oil company, will chair the summit.
While it is up to member states to decide who will chair the talks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has in the past targeted what he called “climate-wrecking companies”, such as fossil fuel producers, and demanded that they be held accountable. called.
The UN has required delegates to climate talks to disclose their affiliation in an effort to curb Big Oil lobbying. (Fox news)
The Bonn talks were marked by divisions between developed and developing countries over whether to include the debate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing further financial aid to poor countries on the formal agenda. Diplomats did not approve the agenda until Wednesday, a day before the scheduled end, after both issues were brushed aside.
“Developing countries are pushed deeper into debt by the cost of climate disasters, but the promised funding to tackle climate impacts and scale up green technologies has still not materialized,” said Teresa Anderson of campaign group ActionAid International.
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“It is not surprising that developing countries are hesitant to negotiate further commitments if they suspect they will not receive the funding to meet them,” she said.
