COP27, a 'fossil fuel industry trade show'? Deluge of industry delegates at summit shocks many

The number of COP27 summit delegates with links to fossil fuel-related entities is up by 25 per cent since the last summit in Glasgow last year, reports said.

According to the campaign group Global Witness, over 600 delegates at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuel industries. This is more than the total number of delegates from the 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Mozambique.

The researchers counted the number of delegates who were either directly affiliated with the fossil fuel companies or were attending as members of the national delegations on behalf of the fossil fuel-related entities.

'COP27 a fossil fuel industry trade show'

“COP27 looks like a fossil fuel industry trade show,” Rachel Rose Jackson of Corporate Accountability, one of the activists who exposed the data, said in a statement.

“We’re on a carousel of madness here rather than climate action. The fossil fuel industry, their agenda, it’s deadly. Their motivation is profit and greed. They’re not serious about climate action. They never have been and they never will," she added.

The total attendance at the COP27 is expected to be 35,000, host Egypt had said prior to the beginning of the summit at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Traditionally, such conferences have always attracted significant numbers from the coal, oil, and gas industries, with stakes in the trajectory the global climate change debate takes.The biggest single delegation at COP27 is from the United Arab Emirates, which will host COP28 next year in Dubai. Russia’s delegation has 33 lobbyists for oil and gas in a delegation of 150.

WATCH WION LIVE HERE