Originally posted on Climate Investigations Center.

The collection of Global Climate Coalition (GCC) documents we compiled and released this April reveal that the organization had a singular focus, slowing down or derailing the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) negotiations process and “tracking” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), undermining the scientists’ message of urgency.  In the GCC meeting minutes and press releases we see numerous interventions at the UN meetings along with strategies, budgets and debriefs.

So we decided it would be interesting to compile every fossil fuel company and trade group delegate who ever attended UNFCCC meetings. This research debuted in an Agence-France Press AFP piece and on Yahoo News this week during a UNFCCC meeting in Bonn, Germany.

Non-governmental organizations like the GCC (or Greenpeace) have to gain accreditation with the UN in order to send “observers” to the meetings. Both the individual corporate members of the GCC (like Exxon) and the trade association members of the GCC (like the American Petroleum Institute) sent large delegations to UNFCCC meetings. These employees of oil companies, electric utilities, auto companies and corporate trade associations wore UNFCCC badges that obscured their true corporate employers to attendees, national delegates and media at the meeting.  

For example, we have a document from 1996 from the Shell documents collection released a year ago, a report back to International Petroleum Industry Environmental Conservation Association (IPIECA) on the second Conference of the Parties (COP2), by employees from Shell, Mobil, Exxon, Texaco, BP, Chevron, Total, ENI who attended the meeting wearing a mix of badges from IPIECA, the GCC, the International Chamber of Commerce and the World Economic Forum, all working together as a team at the meeting.

Activists protest corporate capture outside the COP23 UN climate talks in Germany in 2017. Credit: Ashley Braun, DeSmog

The data compiled stretches from COP1 in 1995 to COP24 in December 2018 and paints a picture of corporate attendance at UNFCCC meetings over these years.  Some corporations like Exxon, Shell and Chevron and trade associations like Edison Electric Institute have been there every year from the beginning with one or more people on different accredited trade association delegations.  

The very same corporations and trade associations and some of the same people that went with GCC or IPIECA badges over two decades ago are still there today, wearing different badges stalking the halls and influencing governments at the talks  Some individuals have worn three or more different badges over the years.

The GCC used this access to monitor the progress of negotiations, apply pressure to various national delegations, and utilize the US and other national delegations when they are friendly.

While their goal in the 1990s was to slow the IPCC science process, the engine that drives the negotiations and to derail the negotiations completely if possible, these companies and corporate associations now try to steer the talks toward false solutions that will allow the fossil fuel industry to continue business as usual.

SEE ALSO: The Global Climate Coalition Files: How Big Business Funded Climate Science Denial and Regulatory Delay

Key Findings:

Below is a tally of the total number of delegates over the period 1995-2018. This not a total number of different delegates, it is the total number of people sent, some people going to many different meetings. These numbers can be seen as a representation of the corporation or trade association’s relative prioritization of the UNFCCC process.  

• Trade Associations that count fossil fuel corporations as members have sent more than 6,400 delegates to the climate talks since 1995 (See Table below)
• Groups with the highest attendance overall:
  • International Emissions Trading Association: 1,817
  • World Business Council for Sustainable Development: 1,266
  • International Chamber of Commerce: 1,145
• The corporations previously represented by the controversial GCC continued to attend in high numbers with other trade associations. Since 1995…
  • Exxon sent at least 20 delegates
  • Shell sent at least 137 delegates
  • BP sent at least 26 delegates
  • Chevron sent at least 29 delegates
  • BHP Biliton sent at least 9 delegates

Persons of Interest:

Eric Holdsworth: Edison Electric Institute

• Former GCC Deputy Director, Holdsworth is now Director of Climate Programs at the Edison Electric Institute(EEI)
• Never missed a year: Holdsworth attended or was at least on the Participants list for at least 34 UNFCCC meetings since 1995
• EEI is a well-known electric utility industry lobby group with a long history of climate denial and policy obstruction.
• See also Utilities Knew research by Energy & Policy Institute.

Brian Flannery: Exxon’s denier on the inside

• Flannery worked for ExxonMobil for 31 years before retiring in 2011.
• While with Exxon, Flannery also attended almost every meeting of the climate negotiations since COP1, registering with a number of different fossil fuel industry trade associations including the US Chamber of Commerce, the International Chamber of Commerce and IPIECA.
• Flannery has a long and well-documented track record of climate denial
  • In 1996 Flannery bragged about his role shaping the IPCC models but denies the certainty of climate change.
  • Flannery was part of regular coordination among fossil fuel corporations and trade associationsin the lead up to Kyoto as part of the International Petroleum Industry Environment Conversation Association (IPIECA)
  • Flannery served on the GCC’s Science and Technology Assessment Committee.
• Flannery has attended practically every UNFCCC meeting, registering under a number of different fossil fuel industry trade associations. Since his retirement from ExxonMobil, Flannery has attended UNFCCC meetings registered under Resources for the Future, a think tank funded by major pollutersincluding Chevron, BP, numerous extractive corporations and a number of automobile corporations and trade associations.
• Flannery has attended a total of 44 UNFCCC conferences as a representative of the following entities:

Also of interest:

• Tanya Morrison of Royal Dutch Shell has been attending since 2010 under the Carbon Capture and Storage Association and the International Chamber of Commerce           

• Arthur Lee of Chevron, has attended UNFCCC meetings since 1999, predominately with IPIECA. Arthur Lee has worked for or with Chevron for many years on climate change. He has attended 23 UNFCCC conferences as a representative of the following entities:

ALL GLOBAL CLIMATE COALITION DELEGATES 1995-2001

Main image: The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) exhibit at COP24 in Poland in 2018. Credit: Chloé Farand, DeSmog