Fossil fuel lobby could be forced to declare interests at UN talks

A push from developing countries to force fossil fuel lobbyists taking part in UN climate talks to declare their conflicts of interest has won a significant battle against resistance from the world’s biggest economies including the European Union, US and Australia.

A Shell oil refinery. Ecuador and Venezuela wants groups
 that represent companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil,
BP and BHP to declare their conflicts of interest.

The UN framework convention on climate change (UNFCCC) has agreed to enhance “openness and transparency” for outside parties and will accept submissions from any stakeholder – which could be any person or group affected by climate change or climate change policy – on how it could do so.

“The result was pretty good – understanding that the world’s largest economic powers were adamantly opposed to anything to do with integrity or conflict of interest at all,” said Jesse Bragg from Corporate Accountability International, which has been running a campaign on the issue.

Read Michael Slezak’s story on The Guardian - “Fossil fuel lobby could be forced to declare interests at UN talks.”