Maira Martini is CEO of Transparency International and Dr. Jeni Miller is Executive Director of the Global Climate and Health Alliance.
Imagine trying to quit smoking by taking advice from a tobacco lobbyist, or relying on a fast-food executive to design a healthy diet for future generations – surely a recipe for disaster. Yet we take this risk when allowing fossil fuel interests to influence global climate negotiations, which remain alarmingly exposed, unlike most international health and anti-corruption bodies which have safeguards in place to limit industry interference.
In 2024, the hottest year in history, the planet crossed the 1.5°C global warming threshold for the first time over a whole calendar year. New research from Transparency International shows that in that same year, a total of 339 fossil fuel lobbyists were accredited as official national negotiators at COP29, while another 867 accessed closed-door talks using government issued badges – many without disclosing their affiliations.
In addition, at COP28 in Dubai the year before, the UAE Presidency itself had deep ties to fossil fuel industries. Although governments at that summit did agree to cooperate on a transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, some big oil producers lauded the outcome as optional and continued their fossil fuel expansion regardless.
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The presence of fossil fuel proponents inside the UN climate talks exposes major gaps in transparency and conflict-of-interest safeguards and threatens the integrity of the COP negotiation process. It also goes against the grain of a growing global trend to protect public policy and public health from vested interests.
Unlike other UN bodies, the UNFCCC – responsible for negotiating agreements to limit dangerous climate change – lacks adequate safeguards to manage conflicts of interest and industry influence. The UNFCCC must adopt stronger measures now – and there is clear urgency to do so.
Fossil fuel harm to health
Brazil’s COP30 Presidency has voiced concerns over fossil fuel interference, plans to lead a “Global Ethical Stocktake” of COP processes, and has launched four “Support Circles”, including one focused on climate governance. Ahead of this November’s climate summit, this opportunity to reform decision-making on global climate action should not be squandered.
Thanks to well-documented health harms from tobacco, alcohol and junk food, decision-making bodies have adopted safeguards against industries whose profits depend on these harmful products. By aligning climate governance with global efforts to limit undue industry influence, COP30 can protect climate negotiations from fossil fuel interference, and set a precedent for stronger, healthier policies worldwide.
Fossil fuel-dependent industries – from aviation to plastics to shipping, along with industrial agriculture and fast fashion – cause as much damage to our health as tobacco, alcohol, and junk food – if not more.
Comment: COP30 must heed the elephant in the room: fossil fuels
Fossil fuels are the leading driver of climate change and its health impacts – from heat deaths, to malnutrition, to the spread of malaria and cholera. Burning fossil fuels causes air pollution, leading to millions of deaths each year from cancer, heart disease, asthma, and other illnesses – the ultimate consequence of second-hand smoke.
These health impacts come with major economic costs – in 2023, heatwaves alone reduced global worker productivity by $835 billion. Industrial agriculture drives emissions even higher, while posing health risks from agrochemicals and increasing the threat of zoonotic disease through human expansion into natural habitats.
Tobacco control protected from industry
To end the fossil fuel industry’s power over climate action, the UNFCCC would do well to follow the decisions made in other UN fora. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control was conceptualised in the early 1990s by academics who encouraged WHO to wield its treaty-making power to address the global smoking epidemic.
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, then Director General of WHO, championed the process of negotiating and adopting the convention. In response to a tobacco industry proposal for self-regulation, Brundtland commissioned an investigation into its interference in UN policymaking.
The findings led to an agreement between governments to “maintain a strict firewall between the tobacco industry and the negotiations”. Among the obligations of all 183 governments that support Tobacco Control, one article could inspire progressive UNFCCC policy:
“In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.”
Similarly, WHO’s Global alcohol action plan makes clear that alcohol policy “should be protected from commercial and other vested interests that can interfere with and undermine public health objectives”. Although imperfect, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization also has principles for private sector engagement designed to guard against undue influence.
What could a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty look like?
More transparency for COPs
By adopting similar rules, the UNFCCC could restore public trust in the COP process and drive meaningful global climate action. To address the influence of major polluters at COPs, the UNFCCC Secretariat and member governments must implement a conflict-of-interest policy that excludes or strictly limits participation by representatives of high-polluting industries.
UNFCCC’s transparency standards must also be strengthened – current rules requiring participants to declare affiliations are far from sufficient, allowing non-disclosure of interests and undermining accountability through vague categories.
The UNFCCC should create a centralised, publicly accessible database that clearly and consistently displays participants’ affiliations during COPs. It must also reform the COP host country selection process, rewarding applicants for strong progress on Paris Agreement goals and their commitment to human rights.
Campaigners issue mass call for reforms to rescue UN climate process
Finally, COP Presidencies should implement conflict-of-interest policies – free from high polluting industry lobbyists, while adhering to high standards of transparency and accountability. This must include the full disclosure of partnerships, consultancies, and detailed meeting records.
These reforms are achievable – COP Presidencies can adopt them voluntarily – and Brazil should lead the way. With time running out, Brazil can demonstrate prioritisation of people and planet over the profits of state-owned Petrobras, and usher in a new era of fossil fuel-free climate summits.
The post How UN climate negotiations can end fossil fuel-industry influence appeared first on Climate Home News.
How UN climate negotiations can end fossil fuel-industry influence
Next week, diplomats from around the world will descend on Yerevan, Armenia, to negotiate a series of decisions under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).
Between 19 and 30 October, 196 parties will gather to hammer out the precise wording of the dozens of legal texts that make up the decisions under the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the CBD.
This year’s summit is particularly significant, as it marks the halfway point between the agreement of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework and the deadline for achieving its targets.
The CBD has found that countries are currently not on track to meet 22 out of the framework’s 23 targets.
During the fortnight, delegates will also be negotiating decisions relating to the two supplemental protocols to the CBD: the Cartagena Protocol, which covers biosafety; and the Nagoya Protocol, which covers access and benefit-sharing for the use of genetic resources.
(The Cartagena and Nagoya Protocols, which are each governed by a “meeting of the parties”, or “MOP”, have fewer parties than the CBD as a whole, with 173 and 141, respectively.)
Carbon Brief is tracking the progress of countries towards consensus on dozens of negotiating texts using the interactive table below.
The tracker includes texts from the COP, as well as the MOPs for the Cartagena and Nagoya protocols. It also includes draft decisions from the most recent subsidiary body meetings, as these form the starting point for the negotiations in Yerevan.
The CBD has three subsidiary bodies: the subsidiary body on scientific, technical and technological advice (SBSTTA), the subsidiary body on implementation (SBI) and the subsidiary body on article 8(j) and other provisions (SB8J).
SB8J focuses on issues related to the Indigenous peoples and local communities. It was established at COP16 in Cali, Colombia, in 2024.
The first two columns of the interactive tracker list the topic of each agenda item and the relevant body, with subsequent columns including dates, page counts and links to the original documents.
The table is searchable and can be sorted using the arrows in the header.
Areas of disagreement in UN draft texts are denoted by square brackets. Counting the brackets in a particular iteration of a text therefore gives a sense of how far parties are from reaching consensus.
The bracket column is colour-coded, with dark green indicating a low number of brackets and red indicating a high number of brackets remaining.
Texts can also present parties with choices using “options” or alternatives (“alt”), which are counted together in the sixth column of the table.
The key discussions in Yerevan will centre around two agenda items in particular. The first is the global review, which will assess progress towards the GBF and make recommendations for accelerating action.
The second is finance, which can be separated into two parts: resource mobilisation and the financial mechanism. On resource mobilisation, biodiverse global south countries are likely to push for an increased amount of international finance for conservation.
Disagreement over the creation of the financial mechanism led to the suspension of COP16 in Cali in October 2024, as parties failed to find agreement on the mobilisation of finance before the end of the summit.
Global south countries want the establishment of a separate financial mechanism under the control of the CBD; global north countries largely prefer to maintain the existing mechanism, which sits under the Global Environment Facility.
At the resumed session of COP16 in Rome in early 2025, countries agreed on a roadmap that would lead to the establishment of a permanent mechanism.
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The post Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Interactive: Tracking negotiating texts at the COP17 biodiversity summit
A beacon of love
On an outer island of Fiji, two thousand nautical miles from Sydney, is a shining light of hope and resilience for our troubled world.
The island of Kioa is home to a Tuvaluan community who migrated from their atoll of Vaitupu in the late 1940s. It is a land of warm hearts, big smiles, and deep cultural roots; a place where the sound of a conch still summons the island together, where islanders paddle out to fish in carved outrigger canoes, and healthy happy children walk barefoot to school.
Here, culture is life. Kioans live sustainably through their traditional knowledge and practices. The island is alive with song, dance and the rhythms of a life tied to the tides, the winds, and the seasons.
Facing the future
Greenpeace has been lucky to have a relationship with Kioa for a number of years now, and we are continually learning from this remarkable community.
Last week, as part of our Voyaging Oceania project, we returned to the island. Our purpose was twofold —- to carry messages from the island to leaders gathering in Nadi this week for the Pacific Pre-COP, and to support the Kioa community in their efforts to improve water security for the island.
Unlike Tuvalu itself, with its eight atolls, Kioa is a mountainous, forested and richly fertile island. It will remain habitable far into the future. Kioans did not initially migrate from Vaitupu due to climate change, but the move was prophetic. They now have a lifeboat.
However, even Kioa faces challenges on our rapidly warming planet, in particular when it comes to water. Climate change is shifting once reliable rainfall patterns. On top of this, the island is already feeling the effect of this year’s intensifying El Niño event, which for Fiji means reduced rainfall and prolonged dry spells.
Right now, fresh water has to be carefully rationed, and is only available for a few hours a day. During last week’s visit aboard our campaigning ship Oceania, Greenpeace was privileged to work with the Kioa community on a new solar-powered water distribution project for the island.
Designed and led by the island, the project involves using a solar pump to move water from a reliable source to a storage tank and then using gravity to distribute the water around the village.
It was a lesson in how local knowledge and ingenuity can be the backbone of today’s climate solutions. To build a dam around the source, the local community knew the exact spot where they could gather gravel at low tide to mix with the cement. They took only what was needed, knowing that all resources must be carefully conserved. Kioa has no roads and no machinery, and it was an all-of-island effort to carry the materials up to the project site, including many heavy bags of sand and rock.
Such projects truly bring to life the vision of a resilient, locally-led, fossil fuel free Pacific.