Representatives of the world’s governments are gathered in Baku, Azerbaijan, to negotiate international climate policy at the Cop29 summit. Of the more than 30,000 participants, thousands will be representatives of companies or business associations – so-called “corporate lobbyists”.
There’s nothing especially new about this. The business community has sought to influence climate policy since global warming first came onto the political agenda in the 1980s. But there has been a notable increase in the number of corporate lobbyists at climate summits in recent years. The number of fossil fuel lobbyists alone went from an already high 503 at Cop26 in Glasgow to well over 2,000 at Cop28 in Dubai last year. The sheer scale of the lobbying efforts at the most recent summits warrants some attention.
Climate lobbying takes many forms. It often involves" financial contributions to political campaigns and parties, as well as gifts and promises of lucrative future positions. Of course, this is one way that companies seek to influence policy, especially in jurisdictions that allow large contributions.
