Talks about climate change restart in Germany this month for the first time since Donald Trump became US president © Getty
Countries including China and India are pushing for tighter rules on business groups attending UN climate meetings, saying possible corporate influence over the talks needs to be made clearer to avoid conflicts of interest.
Climate talks restart in Germany this month for the first time since the inauguration of US president Donald Trump, who has called global warming a hoax concocted by China and threatened to “cancel” the Paris climate accord adopted in December 2015.
A group known as the Like Minded Developing Countries has expressed concern about the “undue influence” of large companies at such talks. In a submission to the meeting this month, the group, which includes India and China, says more rules are needed on potential conflicts of interest for businesses whose concerns clash with the Paris accord’s aim to curb climate-warming fossil fuel emissions.
“We want to make the process more transparent and accountable,” said Walter Schuldt, chief negotiator for Ecuador, a member of the Like Minded group.
The submission from the group says the revenues of some of the multinationals that attend talks “dwarf the gross domestic products of many countries, making [it] even more difficult to avoid or manage a conflict of interest”.
It adds that such conflicts have been taken more seriously in other UN negotiations, such as those on a global tobacco control treaty that has guidelines on protecting public health policies from the “vested interests of the tobacco industry”.
Mr Schuldt conceded that cigarette companies differed from oil or coal producers, which are a backbone of economic activity, and his negotiating group did not believe those sectors’ representatives should be banned from climate talks.
However, he said a declaration of interests should be introduced to make any conflicts more transparent in UN negotiations. It is far from clear if this will occur in a process renowned for a glacial pace of decision-making.
The Paris accord, which came after more than 20 years of UN talks, requires countries to come up with plans to slow the pace of climate change. A slew of rules governing its operation are still to be negotiated at conferences such as the one this month in Bonn, which is set to start on May 8.
Only national government delegates negotiate final texts at such meetings. However, industry representatives can roam conference halls as accredited observers and mingle with ministers or officials, as can peoplE from environmental, youth and trade union bodies.
Industry bodies that aggressively back fossil fuels are expected to face close scrutiny at a special meeting in Bonn on the participation of non-government groups.
Many business associations at the meetings are funded by big polluters, according to a new report by the US-based Corporate Accountability International group, which has long campaigned against industry influence at climate talks.
It says the situation is “more dire than ever” considering the number of Trump administration appointees from the fossil fuel industry, such as Rex Tillerson, the former ExxonMobil chief executive who is now US secretary of state.
One of the groups the analysis mentions, BusinessEurope, has also made a submission to the Bonn climate meeting. However, it argues that the Paris agreement requires more business participation in climate policymaking, not less.
“We’ve always said business and industry are part of the solution for successful international climate negotiations,” Alexandre Affre, industrial affairs director at BusinessEurope, told the Financial Times in an interview.
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