The European Commission is facing criticism from politicians and campaigners for giving a free pass for senior oil and gas executives to attend last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE). 

The EU invited five representatives of fossil fuel giants, including executives from BP, ExxonMobil, and Eni, to the flagship climate talks in December last year. More fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to the Dubai summit than any previous year.

EU Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra explained in late April that the five oil executives were invited to COP28 on the basis of their participation in EU events during the summit. 

“The five representatives… received a Party Overflow badge on the grounds that they were panellists in specific side-events,” Hoekstra stated in a letter to Members of European Parliament (MEPs), following a complaint in December. 

However, DeSmog can reveal that two of the executives did not in fact participate in any EU events at COP28, drawing into question the veracity of Hoekstra’s letter to MEPs.

Exxon’s chief lobbyist in Brussels Nikolaas Baeckelmans, and Eni’s Chief Operating Officer Guido Brusco were invited to the Dubai summit by the EU, yet the European Commission admitted that neither took part in events, when questioned by DeSmog. 

The Commission initially suggested that Baeckelmans and Brusco were replaced at the last minute by higher ranking speakers in their organisations – a claim that does not appear to be true. The new speakers from Exxon and Eni were in fact more junior staff members – further drawing the EU’s claims into question.

Pascoe Sabido, a researcher and campaigner at the transparency pressure group Corporate Europe Observatory, said that the EU had “completely embarrassed itself with its flimsy excuses” for why Baeckelmans and Brusco were invited to COP28.

“What was the EU thinking when it decided to bring senior executives from BP, Exxon and Eni to the UN climate talks? It’s surreal,” he said. “Supposedly the bloc is in favour of a just and fair fossil fuel phase-out, but each of the three companies has a proven track record of lobbying aggressively against such a thing.”

Sabido added that the “EU’s credibility is seriously on the line for this year’s COP29”.

This year’s conference will begin next week (11 November) in Baku, Azerbaijan. On 4 November, more than 100 civil society groups wrote to Hoekstra urging him to not bring fossil fuel lobbyists to this year’s climate talks in Baku.

“It is no more reasonable to ask ExxonMobil and BP how to transition away from fossil fuels than it is to ask Phillip Morris how to quit smoking,” the letter stated.

The annual COP summit allows negotiators and leaders across the globe to put in place commitments to address the climate crisis and assist the worst-hit countries. These summits now often involve hundreds of side events hosted by individual states and pressure groups. 

By virtue of attending the summit, the fossil fuel executives were allowed access to these events, which are open to all attendees, though they could not access the formal negotiations. 

Hoekstra, a member of the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) and a former Shell employee, is set to face questions from MEPs this week as he attempts to convince them to re-elect him for a five-year term as the EU’s climate commissioner.

Lynn Boylan, an MEP representing Sinn Féin, told DeSmog: “It is laughable that the European Commission still thinks it is acceptable to bring fossil fuel lobbyists to the COP negotiations.”

She added: “That Hoekstra thinks it is acceptable to bring these major polluters to the global climate negotiations shows such a disconnect. He claims that they were invited to speak at events (claims which seem false) but even at that, why were these companies being invited to speak at all?”

A European Commission spokesperson told DeSmog that the oil executives “do not have access to our delegation offices nor would they be considered as part of the EU delegation. The EU organises almost 100 side events at the EU Pavilion, on a wide range of topics… the events are aligned with EU policy priorities and feature a wide range of different speakers, including NGOs, academics, scientists and institutional and government speakers.”

Eni confirmed that Brusco didn’t speak at any events at COP28. Exxon didn’t respond to DeSmog’s request for comment. 

A Fossil Fuel Frenzy

The host of COP28, the UAE, used the climate summit to strike a dozen fossil fuel deals according to the campaign group Global Witness. The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) either negotiated or closed oil deals with 12 countries, including the UK, while its chief executive Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber was president of COP28.

Exxon CEO Darren Woods attended the Dubai summit, during which he urged world leaders to focus on reducing emissions rather than phasing out all fossil fuels. 

At least 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists were granted access to the Dubai summit – nearly four times more than any previous year.

“We know that these companies delayed and obstructed climate action for decades – it does not take much insight to know that they are coming to COP to do the exact same thing,” Boylan said. “Hoekstra should know this too – he did, after all, work for Shell for several years.

“We have a situation where fossil fuel lobbyists are better represented at COP than delegates from the poorest countries, or indigenous peoples.”

The climate action plan of Azerbaijan, this year’s COP host country, was rated “critically insufficient” by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) in September, while its state-owned oil and gas company Socar and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production by more than 30 percent by 2033.

Lena Schilling MEP of the Austrian Green Party described the attendance of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP28 as “outrageous” and called for tighter restrictions on their activities. 

“I urge the Commission to establish a strict conflict of interest framework to curb fossil fuel lobbying within EU institutions,” Schilling said. “Just as we’ve set up firewalls against tobacco industry influence, we urgently need the same for fossil fuels. These lobbyists should have no influence on decision making.”

As stated by the world’s foremost climate science body, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), unabated fossil fuels must be phased out as quickly as possible in order to limit global warming to 1.5C. 

This goal, established by the 2015 Paris Agreement negotiated at COP21, is designed to limit the worst and most irreversible impacts of climate change – including droughts, flooding, and poverty.