FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 7, 2025
Contacts: reachout@kickbigpollutersout.org media@corporateaccountability.org
**Access the full research briefing here**
Fossil fuel companies attending recent U.N. climate talks responsible for nearly 60% of global oil and gas production
Attendance of more than 5,350 fossil fuel lobbyists illustrates scale of industry stranglehold as COP30 approaches with absent protections
GLOBAL – Over 5,350 fossil fuel lobbyists have attended U.N. climate negotiations in just four years, with 90 of the corporations they represent responsible for nearly 60% of all global oil and gas production, according to new research from the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition released ahead of COP30 in Belém.
The analysis, which examined fossil fuel lobbyist participation at COP26 through COP29 alongside newly released data from the Global Oil and Gas Exit List 2025 (GOGEL 2025), reveals the staggering scale of fossil fuel industry presence at the very negotiations that must urgently phase out their products to deliver on its mandate. A minimum of 5,368 fossil fuel lobbyists attended the UN climate talks between 2021 and 2024, representing 859 different fossil fuel organizations including 180 oil and gas corporations.
Just 90 of these oil and gas corporations produced 33,699 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of oil and gas in 2024 alone, according to analysis of data from GOGEL 2025. This represents nearly 60% of global oil and gas production for the year. To put this in perspective, this volume of oil would be enough to cover nearly all of continental France (minus Corsica) or more than the entire area of Spain.
The same 90 corporations have planned short-term upstream expansion worth 164,957 mmboe as of Sept 2025. These expansion plans are expected to produce enough oil to cover an area nearly the size of mainland France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway combined. These companies account for an estimated 63% of the global oil and gas industry's total short-term expansion plans as of September 2025.
“Over the last three years, oil and gas companies that lobbied at COP have spent more than $35 billion each year looking for new oil and gas fields, exacerbating the problem the nations of the world had gathered to solve,” said KBPO partner Fiona Hauke of Urgewald. “These companies have defended their fossil interests by watering down climate action for years. As we head towards COP30, we demand transparency and accountability: Keep polluters out of climate talks and make them pay for a just energy transition.”
The findings come as the world continues to breach temperature thresholds year after year, with carbon emissions at all-time highs and fossil fuel use spiraling out of control. For over three decades, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has failed to deliver the climate action needed to keep global temperature rise to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius as promised in the Paris Agreement. The primary reason for this failure is no secret—Big Polluters continue to be granted outsized presence, access, and influence at the very negotiations meant to address the crisis they knowingly caused.
Among the world's largest fossil fuel corporations, Shell sent a total of 37 lobbyists to COP26-COP29, BP sent 36, ExxonMobil sent 32, and Chevron sent 20. These figures do not account for additional lobbyists from the fossil fuel industry's associated trade groups.
According to KBPO partner Alejandro Jaimes, from ANGRY: "Fossil fuel lobbyists must carry the blame of present generations living in harsh climate conditions and future generations not being able to live in a world that is safe enough. It's clear that this has made a significant impact on the progress made inside the UNFCCC, which leads to less time to act. And yet, corporate capture is still normalized inside pavilions and negotiations without clear conflict of interest policies. This must not be just a list of numbers additional to the large amount of data that shows we are on the wrong direction. That's why we demand more transparency being implemented to stop greenwashing and corporate capture in UNFCCC spaces, because we won't accept that the fossil fuel industry keeps on influencing our lives and grabbing even more land.”
Despite the scale of fossil fuel industry presence revealed by this data, COP30 is set to proceed with effectively zero protections against interference in place. Thanks to sustained campaigning from civil society, for the first time COP30 participants who are not attending on government badges will be expected to publicly disclose who is funding their participation and confirm their objectives align with the UNFCCC. However, this step does not include actual protection measures to ensure fossil fuel industry presence doesn't undermine the outcomes of COP30. The requirement also does not apply to individuals on government delegations or who are guests of governments, despite the fact that fossil fuel lobbyists regularly enter climate talks through government delegations.
Ahead of COP30 happening in Belém from November 10-21, more than 225 organizations and networks around the world wrote to the COP30 Presidency asking them to commit to a polluter-free COP by ensuring no fossil fuel ties or sponsorship and by advancing an Accountability Framework that protects the integrity and legitimacy of the UNFCCC. In response, little to no meaningful action has been taken to protect these talks from the fossil fuel industry and other Big Polluters.
"Corporate power is at the root of the climate crisis,” said Nerisha Baldevu, a KBPO member from groundWork/Friends of the Earth South Africa. “Fossil, mining and agribusiness giants are seizing our global institutions and turning climate negotiations into trade expos for polluters. For climate justice, we must dismantle the corporate architecture of impunity and kick these Big Polluters out of policymaking. Our future cannot be written by those who profit from its destruction."
Year after year, fossil fuel industry lobbyists continue to make up some of the largest delegations at global climate negotiations, consistently outnumbering delegates from the most climate vulnerable nations. The Kick Big Polluters Out campaign is calling on the UN climate body and governments to establish a robust Accountability Framework to address the problem of industry interference at its root, and to prioritize the millions of lives on the line from the climate crisis and lack of action to address it, following on other precedents from other U.N. bodies such as the World Health Organization.
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Kick Big Polluters Out is a coalition of more than 450 organizations across the globe united in demanding an end to the ability of Big Polluters to write the rules of climate action. Find more on the coalition and its demands here.
Photo credit: David Tong, Oil Change International
Additional quotes from KBPO partners:
“We are frustrated to see the same corporations that harm our peoples and planet show up at these climate talks. They come to COPs while their pipelines cut through villages and their false ‘solutions’ drive entire communities from their homes. This is the face of corporate capture, and we Africans know it too well. Our peoples are made to face the droughts, floods, and hunger that their greed has fuelled. Yet they still hold the power to decide how we must respond to the crises they are largely responsible for. This is a grave injustice! COP30 cannot be another stage for these Big Polluters to greenwash their destruction and foist the same false ‘solutions.’ We demand that the doors be finally closed to fossil fuel lobbyists and opened to the voices of frontline communities who hold the Real Solutions to the problems today.”Caroline Muturi, Africa Coordinator, IBON Africa
“Every year, Small Island nations are expected to come to negotiations and face the perpetrators of this climate crisis. Over 5000 fossil fuel lobbyists attended the last four COPs — that’s more than the population of some Pacific Island nations. Fossil fuel lobbyists desperately show up in numbers because they know their time is coming to an end. The new disclosure requirements are a step towards justice, but we need to kick the climate criminals out of these talks once and for all. It is absolutely unfair to have them influence decisions that determine our very survival.” Fenton Lutunatabua, 350.org Pacific Team Lead
“Fossil fuel companies and rich countries historically responsible for the climate crisis sent over 5300 fossil fuel lobbyists to COPs in the last four years to influence the climate talks to protect their profits, not our planet. Their presence has shifted resources into expanding more fossil fuel instead of providing finance to the Global South while our communities in the global south at the frontline of this crisis are left to fight floods, typhoons, droughts, and wildfires everyday. We cannot negotiate our survival with those expanding the crisis. People-centred and community-led solutions must be the priority at COP30 and that starts by kicking fossil fuel lobbyists out.” Rachitaa Gupta, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ)
“There is no more room for hypocrisy: oil and gas companies continue to water down climate negotiations every year, selling expensive and unrealistic cosmetic solutions to keep their infrastructure in place and avoid paying for decommissioning costs, as well as the costs of cleaning up polluted land. The Italian company Eni, for example, continues to invest in new exploration, ranking 13th among the world's major oil and gas companies with its expansion plans. The time has come to kick fossil fuel lobbyists out of the negotiations: the climate agenda must be led by the communities and countries that suffer most from climate change.” Eva Pastorelli, ReCommon
“Fossil fuel companies are attending COP while continuing their oil and gas exploration activities. The science is clear: we cannot afford to burn the oil and gas we have already discovered, let alone that which we haven't found yet. Evidently, these companies have no plans to align their goals with those of the UNFCCC and Paris Climate Agreement. Time is running out for us to rapidly reduce emissions and secure a safe future for young people around the world. We cannot allow the vested interests of these companies to get in the way of a just transition away from fossil fuels.” Katie Williams, UK Youth Climate Coalition
“Thanks to tireless campaigning from groups around the world, the UN is ratcheting up its conflict of interest and transparency rules around who takes part in the climate negotiations. But as this research shows, year after year the same climate criminals burning down the planet parade around the talks pretending to be part of the solution. It’s a blatant demonstration of just how ineffective the current tweaks to the rules are. The UNFCCC needs to go further and faster if it wants COP30 or any subsequent COP to actually deliver on transforming our energy system away from fossil fuels.” Pascoe Sabido, Corporate Europe Observatory
“COP has become the world’s largest fossil fuel trade fair, where the very corporations driving planetary collapse now shape the rules meant to restrain them. The very definition of neo-colonialism. While Global South delegates attend to ensure that it does not get worse than it already is, or allow them the reins to do what they wish to do. Over 5,000 lobbyists from firms responsible for fueling wars, genocides, and climate breakdown have turned negotiation halls into corporate boardrooms. This is not participation, but the total capture of freedom, or any potential of it. When those who profit from destruction are invited to define solutions, disclosure rules are meaningless. Justice demands fossil fuel exclusion, not polite self-regulation, and we must fight for it as a collective as local communities against global powers.” Mohammed Usrof, Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy
“It’s now 10 years since the Paris Agreement and two years since the world agreed to end the era of fossil fuels. Yet greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, putting 1.5C increasingly out of reach and condemning entirely blameless communities to the worst impacts of climate breakdown. This research shows why the UN-led process is very far from going fast enough on climate action and justice: Because the fossil fuel industry swarms annual talks with the tactics of delay and denial. Every COP we allow these lobbyists to access incurs a debt that is already being paid in the loss of lives and livelihoods. It is time we kicked these suits out and centre the aims of COP on the needs of people not polluters.” Patrick Galey, Global Witness
“Over 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists have attended the last four COPs, many of them brought in by European governments and companies. At COP30, these governments will once again give the fossil fuel industry privileged access to the very negotiations meant to end our dependence on fossil fuels. The industry’s oil, gas, and coal must stay in the ground and its influence out of our politics. Just as we keep tobacco lobbyists away from health policy, we must cut fossil fuel lobbyists out of climate policymaking. We need a fossil free politics before it’s too late.” Nathan Stewart, Fossil Free Politics
“The proclaimed goal of COP is to limit climate change and discuss measures to mitigate its impacts. Nevertheless, fossil fuel lobbyists are still invited to the negotiation tables there. They continue to influence policy discussions and shape agendas that are meant to protect the climate, while lobbying for the interests of the industry that is most responsible for climate change in the first place. The corporate capture of COP by fossil fuel lobbyists leads to false solutions being promoted and no real climate action being taken – both things that we can absolutely not afford. What we urgently need is a real and just transition, and fossil fuel lobbyists are no part of it.” Sara Fleischer, SOMO - Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations
“Over 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists have attended recent COPs, representing companies behind the world’s oil and gas expansion. You wouldn’t invite Big Tobacco to a conference on lung cancer, so why let Big Oil in the room at the climate talks? COP30 must draw a clear line: Kick Big Polluters Out and adopt strict conflict‑of‑interest rules to protect the integrity of climate negotiations.We need a fast, fair, and funded transition away from fossil fuels, driven by people, not polluters.” David Tong, Oil Change International
“This analysis exposes the sheer scale of effort and influence that Big Polluters are pouring into lobbying to keep oil and gas production alive for decades to come — the exact opposite of the rapid phaseout the world urgently needs. We’ve also seen a surge in lobbying for carbon capture and storage — a proven-to-fail technology that risks prolonging the lifetime of the oil, gas, plastics, and chemicals industries rather than cutting emissions. At COP29, the Center for International Environmental Law identified 480 CCS lobbyists, and we expect a strong CCS industry presence at COP30. In addition, the carbon removals industry is promoting speculative, costly, and risky technologies as so-called climate solutions. In reality, these are little more than loopholes for big polluters — a way to keep polluting while hiding behind creative accounting and false promises. The UNFCCC urgently needs stringent policies to prevent undue corporate influence.” Lili Fuhr, Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) Fossil Economy Program Director.
“Year after year, climate action is derailed by fossil fuel interests, the very forces fueling the climate crisis. As parties at COP work towards much needed measures to address the escalating crisis and deliver justice for the most climate vulnerable communities, we can no longer allow the ones causing the problem a seat at the table. COP30 must not only exclude fossil fuel lobbyists, who are undermining this critical process, but also ensure a people-centred approach that accelerates real climate action and an actionable plan for a fast, fair and financed transition.” Kumi Naidoo, President - Fossil Fuel Treaty Initiative
"This research hits home why global climate talks have stalled for three decades, while physicians are left to pick up the pieces after wildfires, floods, and extreme heat. When 5,000 fossil fuel lobbyists are allowed to influence our nations’ policies, these are no longer negotiations. It's an industry convention. " Dr. Joe Vipond, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
“The level of corporate capture of COPs undermines public trust and distorts climate policy in favour of private profit. Companies and lobbyists are coming in numbers while 88% of companies attending COP28 and COP29 have not expressed a clear position in support of the Paris Agreement since the beginning of 2024.We need robust conflict of interest rules, full disclosure of all affiliations, and clear limits on fossil fuel influence in climate negotiations. As we look to COP30, governments must finally put people and nature before polluters. Anything less would be a betrayal of the Paris Agreement.” Brice Böhmer, Climate & Environment Lead, Transparency International
“Inviting fossil fuel lobbyists to COP is like asking arsonists to lead the fire brigade - you don’t let the ones who lit the blaze decide how to put it out. It’s time to kick fossil fuel companies and their lobbyists out of climate negotiations. Indigenous peoples and frontline communities must lead the way in the climate decisions that shape our lives, not the most polluting industries that are here to protect profits, not people.” Savio Carvalho, Managing Director Campaigns and Networks, 350.org