[Photo Credit: BBC News]
The number of delegates with links to fossil fuels at the UN climate summit has jumped 25% from the last meeting, analysis shared with the BBC shows.
Campaign group Global Witness found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuels.
That’s more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.
Around 35,000 people are expected to attend the COP27 summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
These conferences have always attracted significant numbers from the coal, oil and gas industries, who are keen to influence the shape of the debate.
At last year’s summit in Glasgow, a similar analysis of official attendance lists found 503 delegates connected to fossil fuels.
The researchers counted the number of individuals registered who were either directly affiliated with fossil fuel companies or attending as members of national delegations that act on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.
The data shows that this year, there are more fossil fuel lobbyists than total delegates from the ten countries most impacted by climate change, including Pakistan, Bangladesh and Mozambique.
The biggest single delegation at COP27 is from the United Arab Emirates, which will host COP28 next year.
They have 1,070 people on the ground here, up from just 170 last year.
The analysis found that 70 of that delegations were connected to fossil fuel extraction.
Russia’s delegation has 33 lobbyists for oil and gas in a delegation of 150.
