More Than 100 Corporate Groups Attend COP31, Coalition Says

The analysis, released Friday, lists the International Emissions Trading Association as having the largest delegation among those cited, with 29 delegates. BNP Paribas sent 22, HSBC 19 and Amazon 12. The coalition also says banks present at the summit collectively represent more than $2.2 trillion in fossil fuel financing from 2021 to 2025.

The report says the industries and associations involved have records of being “notably misaligned with or obstructing climate policy.” Their delegations, it adds, vastly outnumber those of some countries highly exposed to the climate emergency, including Niger, the Philippines and Nepal.

Maikel Peuki, director of the Papua chapter of the Indonesian Forum for Living Environment (WALHI) and a KBPO partner, said corporate projects and carbon-offset schemes are targeting forests and coastal areas in Papua. “Those who cause pollution should be the ones to pay for the damage they have created,” he said.

Lien Vandamme, a senior campaigner with the Center for International Environmental Law’s Climate and Energy program, argued that polluters should not help shape climate policy. Prakash Dalal, director of Friends of the Earth Nepal, said their presence was disproportionate compared with civil society and country delegations, and called excluding them a “moral and legal obligation” for the COP.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg also criticized the negotiations while protesting outside the summit, according to a Thursday report by Latin Times. She said they were “filled with lobbyists” paid by industries that profit from continued fossil fuel dependence, and accused governments of using the event to “whitewash themselves” without taking real action.