Fossil fuel companies attending U.N. climate talks in last four years responsible for nearly 60% of global oil and gas production in 2024

**Press release with KBPO partner reactions to this research here.**

For over three decades, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has failed to deliver the climate action needed to justly address the climate crisis, let alone keep global temperature rise to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius as promised in the Paris Agreement ten years ago. As a result, the world is consistently breaching temperature thresholds year after year, climate emergencies are happening at alarming rates and extremes, and carbon emissions are at all-time highs amidst fossil fuel use that continues to spiral out of control. 

The primary reason for this climate action failure is no secret. Big Polluters like the fossil fuel industry—the very same actors that have knowingly caused the climate crisis and that consistently spend billions to block action to address it—continue to be granted outsized presence, access, and influence to key climate policymaking spaces like the UNFCCC. As a result, they maintain a carefully orchestrated stranglehold on climate action, which consequently continues to fall way short of the strong and just global response we know we urgently need.

New research released ahead of COP30 by Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) shows just how significant the presence of the fossil fuel industry has been over the most recent years of the U.N. climate negotiations. KBPO conducted research using its fossil fuel lobbyist databases for COP26-COP29, as well as data from the newly released Global Oil and Gas Exit List 2025 (GOGEL 2025).

5,350+ fossil fuel lobbyists attended COP26 to COP29, including representatives from 180 oil and gas corporations

Kick Big Polluters Out found that between COP26 (in Glasgow) and COP29 (in Baku):

• A minimum of 5,368 fossil fuel lobbyists attended the U.N. climate talks (COP26 = 503 lobbyists, COP27 = 636, COP28 = 2,456, and COP29 = 1,773).
• These fossil fuel lobbyists represented 859 fossil fuel organizations over the four years. “Fossil fuel organizations” refers to legal entities registered to attend the U.N. climate talks and can include companies, foundations, trade associations, and other organizations.
• At least 180 of these 859 fossil fuel lobbyist organizations were oil & gas corporations that remain duty bound to promote fossil fuels in the pursuit of maximizing profit for their shareholders. These 180 corporations are deeply embedded in various oil and gas activities—including exploration and production, distribution, downstream, midstream, industry equipment, and services activities.
• Some of the world’s largest fossil fuel corporations have sent dozens of lobbyists to COP26 to COP29. For example, Shell sent a total of 37 lobbyists, BP 36, Exxon 32, and Chevron 20, not considering the additional lobbyists that represent these Big Polluters’ interests across other associated trade groups and industry groups.

Just 90 oil and gas corporations that attended COP26 to 29 responsible for nearly 60% of global oil and gas production in 2024

A minimum of 180 oil and gas corporations sent lobbyists to COP26 to COP29 and had direct access to U.N. climate negotiations. From these, just 90 oil and gas corporations were responsible for 33,699 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) of oil and gas hydrocarbons produced in 2024—totaling nearly 60% of global oil and gas production, according to data from the Global Oil & Gas Exit List 2025.

While these oil and gas corporations were allowed direct access to global climate negotiations, they were continuing to advance a profit-over-planet business agenda that sent global greenhouse gas emissions soaring to record-breaking heights. To illustrate some of the ways these corporations were fueling the climate crisis while being allowed to participate at the U.N. climate talks without any protections, KBPO compared its fossil fuel lobbyist database with data from the Global Oil & Gas Exit List 2025. This revealed:

• In total, 90 oil & gas companies that attended COP26 to COP29 produced 33,699 mmboe of hydrocarbons in 2024. This accounts for nearly 60% (57%) of global oil and gas production in 2024. For comparison, if these were purely liquid oil-filled barrels that would be enough oil to cover 536,162 km²—or almost all of continental France (543,940 km², excluding Corsica), or more than the entire area of Spain (505,983 km²).[1]
• Oil and gas companies that have attended COP26 to COP29 account for 63% of global short-term oil and gas expansion plans. These 90 oil and gas corporations had 164,957 mmboe worth of planned short term upstream expansion (resources in development and field evaluation)[2] as of Sept 2025. It is extremely likely these hydrocarbons would be added to their production portfolios in the short term. These expansion plans are expected to produce enough oil to cover an area of 2.623 million km²—which would cover nearly the same size of mainland France, Spain, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway combined (2.621 million km²).[3]
• On average, these UNFCCC COP attendees spent 35.136 billion USD annually between 2023-2025 on oil and gas exploration activities, accounting for 54% of the industry’s overall exploration spending.
• These oil & gas corporations were headquartered in 45 different countries, with more than half of the top ten countries represented being in the Global North—Japan (9), USA (6), Canada (6), Russia (5), UK (4), and Spain (2).

COP 30 destined for failure unless Big Polluter influence is finally addressed

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 time and time again. The oil and gas corporations these lobbyists represent are largely responsible for the climate crisis and continue to be responsible for the majority of global oil and gas expansion and greenhouse gas emissions.

Thanks to sustained campaigning from civil society, for the first time COP30 participants who are not on government badges will be expected to publicly disclose who is funding their participation and confirm that their objectives are in alignment with the UNFCCC. But this is a step that should have been taken three decades ago when the UNFCCC was established, and does not include any actual protection measures to ensure fossil fuel industry presence doesn’t undermine the outcomes of COP30 and future climate negotiations. It also does not apply to individuals on government delegations or who are guests of governments (Party overflow), despite the fact that each year fossil fuel lobbyists enter the climate talks through government badges.

Ahead of COP30 happening in Belém November 10-21, more than 225 organizations and networks around the world wrote to the COP30 Presidency asking for 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.

Three decades of climate negotiations have failed to justly end fossil fuels, scale up real solutions, and deliver climate action that centers people and the planet, not Big Polluters’ profits. Until the well-evidenced obstruction of the fossil fuel industry is addressed and strong, lasting protections are in place, COP30 and all future COPs are pre-destined to fail.

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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.

** With thanks to Urgewald for use of their Global Oil & Gas Exit List 2025. All oil & gas upstream (production, expansion, capex) data is derived from analysis of Urgewald's Global Oil & Gas Exit List 2025, the details and methodology of which can be accessed at gogel.org.   

** For a full methodology of Kick Big Polluters’ Out fossil fuel lobbyist research,  please see the bottom of this page.

**Photo credit: Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash

Note on the calculation for mmboe comparative figures

While a boe is a unit of energy rather than a physical volume, for comparative purposes we treat one boe as the volume of one standard oil barrel, in line with common industry conversion practice, to get an idea of how much 33,699 million barrels of oil equivalent (or, 33.699 billion oil barrels) really is.

A standard oil barrel can hold 159 liters of liquid,[4] or 0.159 m³. 

• 33.699 billion boe x 0.159 m³ per barrel = 5.36 billion m³ of oil.

• If this oil were spilled to a thickness/depth of 1 cm (which is 0.01m)

• And if Area (m²) = Volume (m³)​ / Depth (m)

• Then, A = 5.36 billion m³​ / 0.01 m

• Which means A = 536 billion m² (or 536,162 km²)

Spreading 5.36 billion m³​ of oil that’s 1cm thick would cover 536,162 km², which is just under the area of mainland France (543,940 km², excluding Corsica) and larger than Spain (505,983 km²).

For 164,957 mmboe (or 164.957 billion oil barrels equivalent):

• 164.957 billion boe x 0.159 m³ per barrel = 26.23 billion m³ of oil

• If this oil were spilled to a thickness/depth of 1 cm (which is 0.01m)

• Then, Area = 26.229 billion m³​ / 0.01 m

• Which means A = 2.623 million km²

Spreading 26.23 billion m³ of oil that is 1cm thick would cover 2.623 million km², which is nearly exactly the same size of mainland France[5](543,940 km²), Spain[6] (505,983 km²), Germany[7] (357,596 km²), Denmark[8]  (43,094 km²), Sweden [9](447,425 km²), Finland[10] (338,491 km²) and Norway[11] (384,482 km²) combined (2.621 million km²).

References:
[1] Assuming 1 cm oil thickness.

[2] According to GOGEL, “assets under field evaluation are assets in which a company has already made considerable investments: A Plan for Development and Operation (PDO) has been finalized, and Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) has been confirmed. Assets under development are oil & gas assets which will soon enter production, since all necessary permits have been granted, and a Final Investment Decision (FID) has been made.” This figure depicts hydrocarbons which “a company is extremely likely to add to its production portfolio in the "short term" (approx. 1-7 years depending on the type of asset.” See https://gogel.org/sites/default/files/2025-02/Methodology%20public%20GOGEL%202024_final_website.pdf

[3] Assuming 1 cm oil thickness.

[4] According to https://www.unitconverters.net/volume/barrel-oil-to-liter.htm

[5] According to https://www.worldatlas.com/maps/france  

[6] According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-countries-by-area

[7] According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-countries-by-area

[8] According to https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Denmark-LOCATION-SIZE-AND-EXTENT.html

[9] According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-countries-by-area

[10] According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-countries-by-area

[11] According to https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-countries-by-area