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2025 COP30 Climate Summit

About the Series

It’s just 10 years since the landmark Paris Agreement, but international climate commitments have begun to erode. At a pivotal moment for both climate action and the multilateral process, DeSmog covers the influence at COP30 of Big Oil and Big Ag — meat, dairy, agrochemicals — along with the advertising and public relations agencies working for them. They’re sending thousands of lobbyists to Belém to ward off binding measures for a quick global transition to low-carbon energy and agriculture, which is critical to slow the accelerating climate crisis.

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In This Series

Analysis
Pesticide Industry 'Hijacked' Climate Stage at COP30, Campaigners Say
ByClare Carlile
on
Corporate pledges to fight deforestation by turning degraded pasture into cropland seen boosting demand for harmful chemical inputs.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push, Investigating the Pesticide Lobby
Campaigners in the COP30 Agrizone protest against excessive use of agrochemicals. (Credit: Devlin Kuyek/ Grain)
Exclusive: COP30 PR Agency Edelman Lobbied Presidency to Favour Fossil Fuel Client
ByTJ Jordan, Naira Hofmeister and Maria Clara Parente
on
As the New York-based firm was preparing to work on the climate summit, it was also pushing for Brazilian oil and gas distributor Vibra Energia to help power it.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry
A line of giant white fuel silos, one behind the other receding to the right. The Vibra logo painted in green is visible on the front silo.
Backed by Industry, Brazilian Hosts Seek COP30’s Blessing for Biofuels
ByClare Carlile and Maximiliano Manzoni
on
Trade groups lobbied ministers to promote a source of energy linked to massive environmental harms at the U.N. climate conference.
Series: Big Ag's Climate Push, COP30 Coverage
The 'Agrizone' at COP30 in Bélem, Brazil. Credit: Clare Carlile
Analysis
Meet 5 PR Agencies Making Big Polluters Look 'Ag-tastic'
ByKathryn Clare, Kate Dario and Emily J Gertz
on
Agribusiness companies generate huge quantities of greenhouse gas pollution — and PR companies help them obscure it.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push, Advertising & PR Industry
During the COP30 climate summit in Brazil, people are holding signs and a banner protesting environmental pollution by agriculture. They are standing in front of the Agrizone, a special event venue sponsored by agribusiness and located near the main conference venue.
Corporate Giant KPMG Accused of ‘Sneaking’ into COP30
ByRei Takver
on
Several senior staff members have gained entry without disclosing their real employer.
Series: COP30 Coverage
A fossil fuel phaseout protest at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Credit: UN Climate Change / Zô Guimarães (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
More Than 300 Lobbyists for Industrial Agriculture Attend COP30
ByRachel Sherrington and Nina Lakhani
on
Presence of high-polluting companies erodes trust in the UN process, say campaigners.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push
Activists protest the presence of agribusiness groups at the COP30 summit in Belem, Brazil. Credit: Hazel Healy
In Brazil, Agribusiness Giants Hire Celebrity Influencers to Win Hearts and Minds
ByTJ Jordan, Akhil Ranjan, Rachel Sherrington and Clare Carlile
on
Doctors and models extol the virtues of meat as climate impacts of industrial farming face scrutiny at COP30 — the global climate summit.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry , Big Ag's Climate Push
(Credit: Sabrina Bedford)
us/US Oil Executives Flock to COP30
ByPhoebe Cooke
on
Their access to the summit is proof that Big Oil still holds "a dangerous sway" over the climate process, campaigners say.
Series: COP30 Coverage
Attendees line up to get into the COP30, the U.N. climate summit, on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025 in Belém, Brazil. (Credit: AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
‘Inviting the Fox Into the Henhouse’: Canada Delegation to COP30 Loaded with Fossil Fuel Representatives
ByTaylor Noakes
on
Delegation’s composition consistent with new KBPO report revealing this year’s U.N. climate talks have the largest number of fossil fuel lobbyists to date.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Carney's Climate Betrayal
Fossil fuel lobbyists in the Canadian delegation include representatives of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), a lobby group that represents Canada’s oil and natural gas producers. Credit: C2C Journal
UK Partners With Oil Industry Supplier at COP30
BySam Bright
on
Labour government accused of being “complicit in the fossil fuel industry’s conquest of the COP process”.
Series: COP30 Coverage
Prime Minister Keir Starmer at COP30 in Belém, Brazil. Credit: Simon Dawson / No 10 Downing Street (CC BY 4.0)
us/Join DeSmog at the Climate Consciousness Summit 2025
ByDeSmog
on
Register to watch on-the-ground coverage from our team at the COP30 climate talks in Belém, Brazil.
Series: COP30 Coverage
Mapped: Big Food’s Routes to Influence at COP30
ByRachel Sherrington and Gil Alessi
on
A summit billed as the last chance to revive global climate action faces unprecedented pressure from the food sector’s largest emitters.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push
Credit: DeSmog
Brazil’s COP30 Agriculture Sponsors Linked to Deforestation and Land Conflict
ByNaira Hofmeister and Lucy Jordan, Unearthed
on
Organisers offered pesticide giants and agribusiness lobby group “visibility” and “image gain” in return for financial contributions to climate summit's Agrizone.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push
Sponsors of the COP30 Agrizone event venue have paid at least £625,000 for branding, private negotiation rooms, the right to host events, and speaking slots in climate debates. (Credit: Greenpeace)
us/Revealed: US Dairy Industry Push to Water Down Global Emissions Framework
ByClare Carlile
on
Proposed changes to the GHG Protocol would lead to double counting of carbon reductions in the livestock sector, experts say.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push
Credit: Pexels
uk/UK Newspapers Publish More Ads for Polluting Products Than Climate Coverage 
ByEllen Ormesher
on
Space devoted to promoting flights, cruises, SUVs, and the oil industry dwarfed the column inches given to last year's U.N. climate summit, study finds.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry
Credit: Badvertising
Revealed: Soap Opera-inspired Clean Energy Ads Helped Shell Boost Petrol Sales in Brazil
ByTJ Jordan
on
British-owned ad agency VML used "halo effect" of clean energy to build brand awareness that increased fuel sales, documents show.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry
A video still of a Shell ad in Brazil. A man and a woman at a Shell station charging point are about to attach the electric vehicle charging cable to their car. An English subtitle at the bottom of the screen, Look how practical it is. You just plug it in. Pretty soon, it'll come with the electricity bill.
Nvidia Flogged AI for Brazilian Oil and Gas on Eve of COP30
ByRei Takver
on
The tech giant was in Rio de Janeiro hawking AI software to fossil fuel firms just days before crucial climate crisis negotiations in the Amazon.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Tech vs Climate
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. A DeSmog collage. Credit: Simon Liu / Office of the President (Huang, CC-BY-2.0); Wikimedia Commons (Petrobas, CC-BY-SA-4.0); Wikimedia Commons (Nvidia, CC-Zero); Ivan Mlinaric (Amazon rainforest, CC-BY-2.0)
Opinion
uk/Why the UK Advertising Industry Remains in Climate Denial
ByVictoria Harvey
on
With the COP30 climate talks about to open in Brazil, why are agencies failing to reckon with their role in the crisis?
Series: Advertising & PR Industry , COP30 Coverage
Examples of fossil fuel advertising (Credit: Left- and middle-top, Victoria Harvey/ Top-right, Ad Free Cities/ Bottom-right: Victoria Harvey/ Bottom-middle, Badvertising.)
uk/Revealed: Prince William’s Climate Prize Hired PR Firm Tied to Brazilian Fossil Fuel Industry
ByTJ Jordan
on
The agency — LLYC Brasil — promoted the upcoming Earthshot Prize ceremony in Rio de Janeiro while under contract to oil giant Petrobras.
Series: COP30 Coverage
Prince William, the heir apparent to the British throne, is the founder and president of The Earthshot Prize. (Credit: The Earthshot Prize)
Fique de Olho Nestes 8 Termos de Greenwashing do Agro na COP30
ByRachel Sherrington and Hazel Healy
on
Empresas de alimentos e do agronegócio vão se apresentar como solução para a crise climática na cúpula no Brasil — embora os alimentos sejam responsáveis por um terço do aquecimento global.
Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push
us/‘A Pretty Ugly History’: How Exxon Exported Climate Denial to the Global South
ByGeoff Dembicki
on
With Brazil about to host COP30, DeSmog has obtained copies of checks Exxon mailed to the right-wing Atlas Network in the 1990s to turn Latin America against climate treaties.
Series: COP30 Coverage
(Credit: Sari Williams)
Analysis
Look Out for These 8 Big Ag Greenwashing Terms at COP30
ByRachel Sherrington and Hazel Healy
on
Food and farming companies will claim agriculture is the solution to the climate crisis at the Brazil summit — even though the sector drives a third of global warming.
Series: Big Ag's Climate Push, COP30 Coverage
Agribusiness in Brazil makes the misleading claim that "tropical agriculture" farming makes polluting cattle herds “carbon neutral." (Credit: Andy Carter)
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