DELEGATES tied to the world’s largest oil and gas firms — including BP and Shell — have attended UN-led climate talks at least 7,200 times over the last 20 years, analysis has revealed.

The Kick Big Polluters Out coalition examined the number of times delegates from fossil fuel firms and trade bodies went to Cop talks since 2003. The research found that disclosed employees of fossil fuel firms attended the conferences a minimum of 945 times.

Staff from the so-called big five — ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP and TotalEnergies — received at least 267 passes.

The International Emissions Trading Association, whose members include BP, has been given at least 2,769 passes to attend talks. The top 20 trade groups identified in the study are all headquartered in the global North. 

Coalition campaigners said this “underscores how organisations from countries who are most responsible for global emissions are dominating the climate talks, attempting to influence progress on climate action that most directly impacts global South communities, who have done the least to cause the climate crisis.”

Failure to require participants to disclose their affiliations until recently has meant that the findings are merely “the tip of the iceberg of fossil fuel influence,” the campaigners said.

Brenna TwoBears, Keep It In The Ground lead co-ordinator at the Indigenous Environmental Network, said: “Why did fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber indigenous peoples by 200 per cent at Cop26?

“These greedy corporations cannot be allowed into the UN Convention on Climate Change because fossil fuels tip the world closer and closer to extinction every day.”

A spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “The fossil fuel companies have fatally undermined the UN climate talks right from the very start. We have wasted decades on a process which has failed to deliver.

“Scientists are now saying it is too late to stay within the Paris Agreement targets and that we are heading for worst case scenarios. No-one is coming to save us. We need to rise up and take back control through targeted non-violent direct action and citizens assemblies.”

A UN spokesperson said changes to the registration procedure, which now incorporates details such as affiliation to nominating entities, have been introduced ahead of Cop28 in Dubai.