Around 1,600 COP30 participants have ties to fossil fuel industry, activists say

Around 1,600 participants at the COP30 climate conference in the Brazilian city of Belém have ties to the fossil fuel industry. Activists from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition say that companies and organizations linked to the extraction of oil, gas and other fossil fuels have a larger presence at the conference than any country other than host Brazil. A speech by TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné caused a stir at the conference today.

According to AFP, which saw the full list submitted by the coalition’s activists, those identified as having ties to the fossil fuel industry include representatives of mining companies, industry associations, foundations under the influence of mining companies, as well as a transport company such as Denmark’s Maersk and representatives of carmakers, including the Volkswagen Group. The 1,600 lobbyists also include French company EDF, which generates a fraction of its electricity from coal.

According to the list published by the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the start of the conference on 10 November, around 56,000 people registered to attend. However, 11,500 of them are representatives of government and public institutions, and another 4,000 are journalists.

TotalEnergies CEO Pouyanné spoke at a discussion at COP30 today. According to AFP, he is one of the few senior executives from mining and oil companies to have travelled to the conference. Asked by an activist from Greenpeace whether he considered himself a lobbyist, he said no. “I was invited. I came, and I believe in dialogue,” Pouyanné said. He declined to answer a further question about whether fossil fuel extraction contributes to more intense hurricanes and weather events. “I’m not a meteorologist,” he said.

Environmental activists have long criticized what they see as the fossil fuel industry’s strong influence on UN climate talks. They believe that those whose activities have contributed significantly to climate problems should not be the ones deciding how to address them. The companies mentioned in this context reject this view.