• COP26 takes place from October 31 until Friday (at least) at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow.

    This new annual climate summit is presented, in view of its challenges, as the most important since the COP21 in Paris.

  • However, among the accredited participants at the summit, the British NGO Global Witness counts at least 503 who have close links with fossil fuels.

    Sometimes even sent to Glasgow by the countries themselves, within their delegation.

  • 503 is more than the Brazilian delegation in Glasgow, the largest with 479 members.

    Global Witness sees this overrepresentation of the fossil lobby as one of the main reasons for the poor progress in climate negotiations over the past twenty-five years.

At the COP26 in Glasgow

Is the fossil fuel lobby better represented than any country at COP26 in Glasgow?

It is at this conclusion that the NGO Global Vitesses arrives, which examined the list of participants published by the UN at the start of COP26, reports the BBC.

As a reminder, more than 40,000 people are accredited.

Among them, the Global Vitesses has representatives of more than 100 fuel companies, but also of thirty professional associations in the fossil fuel sector, calculates Global Vitesses.

Even within the delegations of several states

One of them is the International Association for Emissions Trading Rights (IETA), which has 103 delegates, including three from the British oil company BP, the NGO said. For Global Vitesses, the IETA would be supported by many large oil companies to push for carbon offsetting and carbon trading, which they see as a way to continue extracting oil and gas *. Finally, the Global Vitesses also has fossil fuel lobbyists in the official delegations of certain states. In those of twenty-seven states to be precise, including Canada and Russia.

Up at # COP26Glasgow I keep hearing from representatives of less powerful countries who are most affected by climate change they just cant get their voices heard.



Look who can: the fossil fuel lobby.

pic.twitter.com/CN7r6PVByM

- 💚 Cllr Emily O'Brien 💚 (@EmilyLincOBrien) November 9, 2021

In total, Global Vitesses estimates that at least 503 the number of accredited participants at COP26 who have links with the fossil fuel industry, and who therefore lobby or are likely to do so.

This is more than any other official delegation sent by countries.

Brazil has the largest contingent, with 479 people sent to Glasgow, followed by Turkey (376), two countries yet far from being among the most ambitious in climate negotiations.

Then come the Democratic Republic of Congo (373), Ghana (337), Russia (312), when Great Britain, organizer of this COP26, has a delegation of 230 members.

More than the combined delegations of the eight most affected countries

This fossil fuel lobby also has more members than the combined delegations of the eight countries most affected by climate change over the past twenty years, further points out Global Speeds.

A black point of this COP26?

"The fossil fuel industry has spent decades denying and delaying real action on the climate crisis, which is why this is such a huge problem," said Murray Worthy, head of the 'Gas' campaign. Global Speeds.

Their influence is one of the main reasons why twenty-five years of climate talks have not led to real reductions in global emissions.

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