At least 1,773 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to the COP29 climate negotiations, according to an analysis.
The figure is calculated by the Kick Big Polluters Out, a coalition of 450 organisations across the globe, underscoring the outsized presence of polluters at crucial climate talks year after year.
Last year, 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists had been granted access to the COP28 summit held in Dubai.
鈥楽ignificantly more fossil lobbyists have been granted access to COP29 than almost every country delegation,鈥� reads a line of the press release issued by the KBPO on Friday.
The presence of the fossil fuel lobbyists was outnumbered only by delegations sent by host Azerbaijan with 2,229 people, followed by COP30 host Brazil with 1914 people, and T眉rkiye with 1862 people.
Fossil fuel lobbyists received more passes to COP29 than all the delegates from the 10 most climate-vulnerable nations, who sent 1033 people combined.
The largest trade group bringing the most fossil fuel lobbyists was the International Emissions Trading Association, which brought 43 people including representatives from Big Polluters TotalEnergies and Glencore, the press release said.
Japan brought coal giant Sumitomo as part of its delegation while Canada bought oil producers Suncor and Tourmaline. The United Kingdom brought 20 lobbyists while Italy brought employees of energy giants Eni and Enel, according to the press release.
The KBPO also noted that Chevron, ExxonMobil, bp, Shell and Eni, which brought a combined total of 39 lobbyists, are also linked to enabling genocide in Palestine.
Kick Big Polluters Out Member Nnimmo Bassey from Health of Mother Earth Foundation, said, 鈥楾he fossil fuel lobby鈥檚 grip on climate negotiations is like a venomous snake coiling around the very future of our planet.鈥�
The KBPO findings come at the end of a year in which global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions shattered records and amidst evidence of fossil fuel complicity in genocide in Palestine through the supply of oil and gas to Israel, the press release said.
Some of the world鈥檚 largest fossil fuel corporations approved $250 billion in oil and gas expenditure since COP28.
The KBPO found this year鈥檚 presence extraordinary because of the significant drop in the number of attendees in the climate talk to 52,305 this year from 97,372 last year.
鈥楥OP has been held 29 times, and climate change continues to get worse,鈥� the press release quoted Beyrra Triasdian from Trend Asia as saying.
