Oil executives descended on the COP29 talks in Baku for "energy day" on Friday as environmental groups denounced the presence of fossil fuel industry lobbyists at the UN climate talks. While negotiators haggle behind closed doors on the key task of increasing climate funds for developing nations, the executives from top oil firms including France's TotalEnergies are holding events. The "Kick the Big Polluters Out" (KBPO) coalition of NGOs analysed accreditations at the annual climate confab, calculating that more than 1,700 people linked to fossil fuel interests are in attendance.
"It's like tobacco lobbyists at a conference on lung cancer," David Tong from campaign group Oil Change International told AFP. The presence of oil, gas and coal interests at the climate talks has long been a source of controversy. The appointment of UAE state oil firm head Sultan Al Jaber to the presidency of last year's negotiations in Dubai was a lightning rod for criticism.
And this year's host, energy-rich Azerbaijan, launched a defence of planet-heating fossil fuels, with President Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday repeating his insistence that oil, gas and other natural resources are a "gift of God". "It's unfortunate that the fossil fuel industry and the petrostates have seized control of the COP process to an unhealthy degree," former US vice president and leading climate activist Al Gore said Thursday. While the Dubai summit produced a global agreement on "transitioning away" from fossil fuels, the .