1 In Every 25 Attendees: Big Oil Lobbyists Swarm COP30 In Record Numbers

As world leaders gather in the heart of the Amazon for what Brazil billed as the “Implementation COP,” a shocking new report reveals the climate summit has been quietly taken over by the very industry driving the crisis: fossil fuels.

At least 1,602 fossil fuel lobbyists have flooded into COP30 — the highest proportion ever recorded. That's one lobbyist for every 25 people walking the halls of the climate talks, a staggering 12 per cent jump from last year's already controversial COP29 in Baku.

The Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition, which painstakingly analysed the United Nations' provisional participant list, found the oil, gas and coal lobby now dwarfs almost every national delegation. Only host Brazil sent more people (3,805) than the entire fossil fuel contingent.

What The Numbers Say

• Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber delegates from the Philippines by nearly 50 to 1 — while the country battles deadly typhoons in real time.  
• They outnumber Jamaica's delegation by more than 40 to 1, months after Hurricane Melissa devastated the island.  
• Big Oil secured two-thirds more passes than the combined delegations of the 10 most climate-vulnerable countries (just 1,061 delegates from nations like Chad, Somalia and Tonga).

Over 160 Lobbyists Handed Official Government Badges

• France brought 22 fossil fuel executives, five from TotalEnergies — including CEO Patrick Pouyanné himself.  
• Japan embedded 33 lobbyists, among them representatives from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Osaka Gas.  
• Norway, the self-styled “green” nation, slipped in 17, including six senior Equinor executives.

Trade associations remain the industry's Trojan horse. The International Emissions Trading Association alone brought 60 delegates, with staff from ExxonMobil, BP and TotalEnergies.

“It's common sense that you cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it,” said Jax Bonbon of IBON International in the Philippines. “Yet three decades later, more than 1,500 fossil fuel lobbyists are roaming the talks as if they belong here. It is infuriating.”

While 2025 hurtles toward becoming one of the hottest years ever recorded, and atmospheric carbon dioxide hits new highs, the same corporations fuelling the crisis have approved nearly $250 billion in new oil and gas projects since COP29.

Civil Society Voices

“This is a Conference of Polluters, not Parties,” said Pascoe Sabido of Corporate Europe Observatory. “Until we Kick Big Polluters Out, every COP outcome will be written by the world's largest polluters — in the name of profit over people and planet.”

Others drew stark links between fossil fuels and global violence. “The fossil fuel industry and the Israeli colonial regime are two sides of the same coin of destruction,” said Ana Sánchez of Global Energy Embargo for Palestine. “There is no climate justice without Palestine liberation.”

For the first time, COP30 requires non-government participants to disclose funding and declare alignment with UNFCCC goals. But the rule doesn't apply to those wearing government badges — the very loophole exploited by France, Japan, Norway and others.