Fears in Egypt that the gas industry ate the climate talks

Sharm el-Sheikh: The mood at world climate talks in Egypt has turned testy and tense, with observers outside the negotiating rooms fearing that proceedings have been hijacked by powerful interests, and those inside fighting over differences that were thought to have been settled a year ago in Glasgow.

Bill Hare, the Australian chief executive of Climate Analytics and an adviser to small island states at the meeting said it was one of the worst he has attended. He is a veteran of 26 of these meetings.

The sun sets at COP27 on Saturday.Credit: AP

The Nigerian architect, environmental activist, author and poet Nnimmo Bassey had an equally bleak assessment.

“This COP is lost and damaged,” he told me outside an event on Saturday morning (Egypt time) as the temperature rose on the 25,000 or so attendees in Sharm el-Sheikh on the Red Sea.

“Someone needs to save it.”

Bassy, who was one of Time magazine’s Heroes of the Environment in 2009 was flipping the language of meeting on its head. Many activists have called for this year’s COP (or more properly Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) to focus on payments for “loss and damage”.

This is the diplomatic phrasing for what is the demand for compensation payments from the developed world (which has caused the majority of climate change) for the developing world (which is suffering the worst consequences of it.)

As expected loss and damage talks have become a significant faultline in negotiations, with rich nations unwilling to create a mechanism that would see them open a chequebook they may find difficult to close.

Biden’s chief climate diplomat, John Kerry, was blunt about America’s position on the issue during a press conference held not long after I spoke with Bassey.

“It’s a well known fact that the United States and many other countries will not establish a structure that is tied to compensation or liability. That’s just not happening.”

Protesters demonstrate over climate justice, loss and damage, fossil fuels, and other climate related issues at COP27. Credit: Getty Images

A few hours later Greenpeace put out a statement accusing not just the US, but a handful of nations including Australia, New Zealand and Norway of using “blocking language” on loss and damage in negotiations.

Yeb Saño, Greenpeace International’s COP27 Head of Delegation, was scathing on the issue.

“All the talk of deadlines and complexities about loss and damage is just code for climate delay, which is disappointing but not surprising. How to restore the trust lost between the Global North and Global South? Five words: Loss and Damage Finance Facility.”

But it wasn’t just loss and damage that was cruelling talks as the day went on.

Rumours soon spread that negotiators for a handful of nations were arguing that any agreement to come out of the talks should be stripped of references to holding warming to 1.5 or 2 degrees.

Kerry confirmed this during his press conference, saying while a small group of countries had raised the matter, he knew that Egypt, “doesn’t intend to be the country that hosts a retreat from what was achieved in the Glasgow”.

“So we will have those discussions during this week. But that is the adopted language and UNFCC and most countries here in general attention going backwards.”

But critics like Bassey already feel betrayed by Egypt. This was meant to be the African COP, he tells me. Instead it has become the gas industry’s COP.

Bassey, like others, believes that emboldened by Europe’s hunger for gas, the revived industry has infiltrated the meeting even more thoroughly than those before it.

One advocacy group has counted over 600 oil and gas lobbyists registered to attend the COP, some of whom who have been invited to join national delegations. This is more than attended the far larger talks in Glasgow last year.

Among those is BP’s boss Bernard Looney who was listed as a delegate for Mauritania, giving him access to the conference’s Blue Zone at the conference, an area reserved for government delegations and negotiations. The BBC has reported that Looney was invited by the Mauritanians for a signing ceremony and has left.

“At every session [the gas lobby presence] is very clear,” says Nnimmo. “They’re not talking about the fundamental issues. They’re not planning to stop dependence on fossil fuels. “There’s a big dash for gas in Africa, especially with the war in Europe.

“We’re seeing everything turning upside down. And the African politicians are here to promote a new kind of carbon market. In other words, it’s all about business.”

Asked by the Herald and The Age about the criticism, ambassador Wael Aboulmagd, special representative of the COP27 president, said each fossil lobbyist present had to pass a high bar to gain registration, including demonstrating that their organisation has a viable decarbonisation plan.

He said climate polluting industries needed to be part of the COP conversation.

“But to your point, whether [their presence] affects outcomes, I can assure you we won’t allow it.”

Hare notes that it is not uncommon for tempers to fray in the middle of these mammoth two-week negotiations. By the time the middle weekend starts the excitment and drama of the leaders’ summit that starts the events has faded and diplomatic staff have been locked in small rooms for long hours.

Their ministers are due to arrive for briefings on progress made, before the second ministerial week begins.

Even so, he says, the presence of the fossil lobby at COP is undeniable, and the frustration of those dedicated to undoing its influence understandable.

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