Environmentalists have warned that the COP30 summit, where a move away from oil and gas is high of the agenda, has allowed more than 1600 fossil fuel lobbyists to be in attendance.

The study by the Kick Big Polluters Out (KBPO) coalition said one in 25 of the delegates  granted access to the event in Belém, Brazil, are lobbying for the fossil fuel industry.

The analysis revealed that fossil fuel lobbyists significantly outnumber almost every country delegation at COP30 – with only host country Brazil (3805), sending more people. Proportionally, this is a 12% increase from last year’s climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, and is the largest concentration of fossil fuel lobbyists at COP since KBPO started analysing conference attendees.

The Kick Big Polluters Out coalition analysed the provisional list of participants at COP30 line-by-line. The findings include:

• Fossil fuel lobbyists outnumber official delegates from the Philippines by nearly 50 to 1 – even while the country is being hit by devastating typhoons as the UN climate talks are underway. Fossil fuel lobbyists sent more than 40 times the number of people than Jamaica, which is still reeling from Hurricane Melissa.
• Fossil fuel lobbyists have received two thirds more passes to COP30 than all the delegates from the 10 most climate vulnerable nations combined (1061), highlighting how industry presence continues to overshadow that of those on the frontlines of the climate crisis.
• Major trade associations remain a primary vehicle for fossil fuel influence, with the International Emissions Trading Association bringing 60 representatives, including delegates from oil and gas giants ExxonMobil, BP, and TotalEnergies.
• Behind-the-scenes access also remains a major channel for influence, with approximately 599 lobbyists gaining access through Party overflow badges that allow the individuals behind the scenes access to the inner workings of the negotiations.
• Several Global North countries included fossil fuel representatives within their official delegations – France brought 22 fossil fuel delegates, with five from TotalEnergies, including CEO Patrick Pouyanné; Japan’s delegation contained 33 fossil fuel lobbyists, among them Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Osaka Gas; and Norway snuck 17 into the talks, including six senior executives from its national oil and gas giant Equinor.
• Although attendance at COP30 is smaller overall than COP29 in Azerbaijan and COP28 in Dubai, the proportion of fossil fuel lobbyists has increased to nearly 1 in every 25 delegates present in Belem.

Responding to the findings, Kick Big Polluters Out member Jax Bongon from IBON International in the Philippines said: “It’s common sense that you cannot solve a problem by giving power to those who caused it. Yet three decades and 30 COPs later, more than 1,500 fossil fuel lobbyists are roaming the climate talks as if they belong here.

“It is infuriating to watch their influence deepen year after year, making a mockery of the process and of the communities suffering its consequences. Just days after devastating floods and super-typhoons in the Philippines, and amid worsening droughts, heatwaves, and displacement across the Global South, we see the very corporations driving this crisis being given a platform to foist the same false ‘solutions’ that sustain their profit motives and undermine any hope of truly addressing the climate emergency. COP30 promises to be an ‘Implementation COP,’ yet it has so far failed to implement even a basic and long-overdue demand of kicking Big Polluters out of a conference meant to address the crisis they created.”

The KBPO findings come as 2025 is set to become one of the hottest years on record, with climate disasters intensifying worldwide and atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations reaching unprecedented levels.

KBPO added despite growing calls for a rapid and just transition away from fossil fuels, the industry continues to expand operations, with nearly $250 billion approved for new oil and gas projects since COP29.

It continued the outsized fossil fuel industry presence in Belém threatens the stated goals of COP30, which Brazil has positioned as a critical moment for implementing the Paris Agreement and scaling up climate finance.

“This contradiction further strengthens the demand to ensure Polluter-free COPs and establish formal safeguards against polluter influence,” The organisation added.

COP30 is the first COP where all non-government participants are expected to publicly disclose who is funding their participation and to confirm their individual objectives are in alignment with those of the UNFCCC.