Influential industry trade groups, thinktanks and public relations agencies with a track record in climate denialism and misleading the public have been given access to the UN climate talks in Dubai, the Guardian can reveal.
Corporate Accountability, a transparency watchdog, has found that UN organizers greenlighted access to groups that have obstructed fossil fuel regulations and other climate action, giving them the same or greater access to the international negotiations as Indigenous communities, human rights groups and climate justice organizations.
Organizations and individuals invited by country-delegations also have access to closed-room negotiations from which civil society and grassroots groups are locked out.
The new data, derived from official UN delegate lists, found at least 166 climate deniers and fossil fuel public relations professionals are at Cop28. The true number is probably significantly higher as only the most prominent bodies were included in the analysis. Some of the groups have been coming to the UN climate talks for years.
Cop28 is taking place at the end of the hottest year on record, as climate scientists warn that time is running out to phase out fossil fuels and avoid total climate catastrophe. The irreversible loss and damage in developing countries is estimated by some studies to be greater than $400bn annually – and expected to rise – so time is of the essence.
Yet the scale of oil and gas influence in Dubai is unprecedented, with more than 2,400 industry-affiliated lobbyists registered at Cop28 – four times as many in Sharm el-Sheikh last year.
“It’s obscene that climate denying organizations and fossil fuel companies’ PR agencies are welcome in these negotiations to spin, lie, and distort,” said David Tong, global industry campaign manager at Oil Change International. “It’s simply embarrassing that they are allowed to register for the United Nations climate change conference.”
“Fossil-fueled backed and funded organizations like API are given the same access as public-interest NGOs. With a seat at the table, they have the ability to influence decision makers charged with making policy decisions in the interest of people and the planet, not profit-makers fueling the climate crisis,” said Ashka Naik, director of research and policy at Corporate Accountability.
The World Health Organization prohibits tobacco companies and lobbyists from attending its summits, yet the UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) has no conflict of interest policy allowing organizers to ban bad-faith actors from registering as observers.
The climate action obstructionists at Cop28 include the American Petroleum Institute (API), the largest fossil fuel trade group which for years has blocked efforts to pass domestic legislation limiting greenhouse gas emissions. Internal documents suggest that the API, which is attending as an accredited observer delegation like Greenpeace and Amnesty International, has been misleading the public on climate change since the 1980s.
Most oil, gas and coal in fields and mines operating now must stay in the ground to have a chance of keeping global heating below 1.5C. Yet API is behind Energy Citizens, an astroturfing front group that has coordinated climate denial and pro-fossil fuel campaigns aimed to look like grassroots movements. API has also financially backed the Heartland Institute, a free-market thinktank at the center of climate misinformation, and which in recent years has sent hundreds of thousands of climate denial textbooks to American public schools.
An API spokesperson said: “We welcome the opportunity to listen to world leaders and engage in discussions to promote climate solutions. API shares the urgency of confronting climate change together, and the natural gas and oil industry is committed to advancing a lower carbon future while meeting rising global demand for affordable, reliable and sustainable energy.”
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, a US libertarian thinktank which earlier this year called the IPCC’s final report a “far-left manifesto”, is also at Cop28 as an accredited observer delegation.
Myron Ebell, the CEI’s former energy and environment director and current senior fellow, was one of the main architects of the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement during the Trump administration. Ebell is not in Dubai but was accredited at multiple previous Cops, according to UN delegate lists. CEI did not respond to a request for comments.
Edison Electric Institute, a trade group for private electric companies in the US with a track record in spreading climate denialism dating to the 1990s. is another accredited observer delegation which has attended at least 14 Cops. EEI played a leading role in the formation of the Global Climate Coalition (GCC), an industry group that worked to cast doubt and spread disinformation on climate change. Earlier this year, the Guardian reported the EEI’s effort to block emissions reductions policies.
“We have lost three crucial decades of action since the landmark 1992 climate change convention, largely due to the pervasive influence of climate deniers and fossil fuel lobbyists,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International. “Their continued involvement poses a serious threat to the integrity of global climate policymaking, particularly regarding the essential phase-out of fossil fuels.”
EEI said that its members are the “strongest supporters of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act, which together are incentivizing deployment of new carbon-free technologies and new carbon-free generation in a way that directly reduces the cost impacts on customers”, said Brian Wolff, the group’s chief strategy officer.
The central role played by PR agencies in promoting climate misinformation and preventing climate action is coming under mounting scrutiny, after years behind the scenes.
The UK-headquartered WPP has more than 50 contracts with fossil fuel companies through its holding companies including six with BP, and has apparently run campaigns for most of the major oil and gas companies including Saudi Aramco, Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), ConocoPhillips, Chevron and Petrobras. According to one investigation on climate disinformation, WPP clients BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and TotalEnergies made up for nearly 98% of all greenwashing and fossil fuel disinformation advertisements on Facebook from January to October 2023.
A WPP spokesperson said: “We believe it is essential that the communications of energy companies are truthful, fair and accurate. We require rigorous standards to be applied to the content we produce for our clients, and seek to fairly represent their actions and commitments at all times.”
The Washington-based FTI Consulting’s clients include ExxonMobil, Eurogas and the Trans Adriatic pipeline, as well Hydrogen Europe and the Hydrogen Council. FIT has set up front groups and fake news channels, posed as reporters, and written negative reports about climate scientists and activists, according to the Climate Investigations Center. In 2020, FTI was found to have created fake pro-fracking and gas exploration websites that appeared to represent citizens and grassroots movements. In 2022, the company’s alleged use of deceptive PR tactics to mislead the public on climate change and advance fossil fuel interests came under scrutiny from the House committee on natural resources’ oversight and investigations panel.
A spokesperson said: “The work FTI Consulting’s strategic communications professionals provide for clients in all sectors of the economy is consistent with our company’s climate and net-zero commitments.”
Another agency walking the corridors in Dubai is Edelman, who are here as part of the official delegations for the UAE, Malaysia and Canada, giving them access to closed-door negotiations.
It is not Edelman’s first Cop, yet the PR giant and its subsidiaries have a history of supporting PR campaigns to block climate legislation, with a client list that includes ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, TotalEnergies and the API. Internal documents obtained by Greenpeace suggest Edelman was behind a campaign that falsely created the illusion of public backing for the Keystone XL pipeline, on behalf of TransCanada. Edelman did not respond to a request for comments.
“The inclusion of climate change denial groups and PR firms alongside the massive presence of the fossil fuel industry at Cop28 calls into question the seriousness of the talks to enact policies to address the unfolding climate emergency,” said David Armiak, research director at the Center for Media and Democracy. “Why else would groups that spew climate misinformation be included if not to derail the talks?”
