Fossil Fuel Lobbyists Outnumber Most Official Delegations at Cop30 in Belém
More than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to Cop30 in Belém, accounting for about one in every 25 participants. The 1,602 lobbyists identified include 148 with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), 60 with the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), and 41 with the Brazilian National Confederation of Industry (BNCI). Major oil and gas companies such as ExxonMobil, BP, and TotalEnergies are among those represented.
Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber the official delegations of every country except the host nation, Brazil. Brazil’s delegation comprises 3,805 delegates, which is larger than the total lobbyist presence. Analysis by the KBPO group reveals that the number of passes granted to fossil fuel lobbyists is approximately 60% higher than the combined totals of the ten most climate-vulnerable nations, which together have 1,061 delegates.
Although overall attendance at Cop30 is lower than that at the previous two summits—2,456 at Cop28 and 1,773 at Cop29 in Baku—the proportion of fossil fuel lobbyists this year is higher. Over the past five years, fossil fuel lobbyists have gained access to United Nations climate summits totaling around 7,000.
Country-specific ratios highlight stark contrasts: in the Philippines, lobbyists outnumber the official delegation by approximately 50 to 1; in Iran, by 44 to 1; and in Jamaica, by 40 to 1.
Calls have intensified for a global ban on fossil fuel lobbying at climate summits, with officials arguing that the significant presence of these lobbyists reflects corporate capture and undermines effective climate governance. Transparency remains a concern as well, with more than half of all delegation members failing to disclose their affiliations. Notably, delegations from Russia, Tanzania, South Africa, and Mexico did not provide such disclosures. New rules also exclude official government delegations or their overflow participants from mandatory disclosure requirements.
