Top American oil and gas producers are using trade groups to gain access to this year’s COP30 climate summit in the absence of an official U.S. delegation, DeSmog can report.

ExxonMobil and Chevron — which are among the fossil fuel industry’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters — have sent a combined total of 13 executives to the talks, while both companies have either sponsored events or pavilions at the conference.

In addition, Exxon CEO Darren Woods spoke at a number of COP30 side events, including one in Sao Paolo on November 3, where he noted in an interview with Reuters that crude oil and hydrocarbons were “going to play a critical role in everybody’s life for a long time to come”.

U.S. President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of deciding against sending an official U.S. delegation to the COP30 climate summit, where over 50,000 delegates are gathered in the Amazon city of Bélem, Brazil. 

“[Trump] may be skipping COP30, but his fossil fuel allies aren’t,” Collin Rees, U.S. campaign manager at Oil Change International told DeSmog. “This is proof that Big Oil still holds a dangerous sway over the climate process.”

The 13 executives identified by DeSmog are among the more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists attending this year’s summit. This is the largest ever proportion recorded at a climate conference, according to a new analysis published today (Friday) by the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition, a coalition calling to remove fossil fuel companies and lobbyists from influencing climate negotiations.

Fossil fuels are the biggest contributors to the climate crisis, and Exxon and Chevron are among the 57 polluters directly linked to 80 percent of the world’s global fossil CO2 emissions since the 2016 Paris Agreement. Two years ago, the COP28 summit in Dubai ended with a historic call to “transition away” from fossil fuels to meet climate targets, but emissions from polluting fuels are on track to hit a record high this year. 

Exxon and Chevron also have a history of delaying action on climate change through lobbying and false advertising. Earlier this month, DeSmog and The Guardian revealed how Exxon funded think tanks to spread climate denial in Latin America and across the Global South during the 1990s and early 2000s.

Both companies say they are committed to climate action, but neither has committed to a 2050 net zero target that includes Scope 3 emissions from the burning of their fuel, which make up the vast bulk of their polluting gases.

Exxon and Chevron did not respond to DeSmog’s request for comment.

Trade Groups and Sponsorship

This was the first year in COP history when attendees have been able to voluntarily disclose which organisation or individual paid for their attendance.

Analysis of the delegates list reveal that the Geneva-based International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), which counts ExxonMobil as a member, paid for two Exxon executives to attend, as well as delegates from BP and TotalEnergies. Meanwhile Washington D.C.-based Thaddeus Segal from ExxonMobil, senior director of Exxon’s global energy transition in public and government affairs, accessed the talks as part of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) delegation.

The IETA is a business lobby group made of some of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and greenhouse gas emitters. This year, the group’s pavilion was sponsored for a second year running by Chevron, among other polluters, including BP. As DeSmog reported last year, the group’s COP29 pavilion in Baku, Azerbaijan, was also sponsored by ExxonMobil.

DeSmog also found that ExxonMobil is sponsoring a “high-level” side-event on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) on November 15, hosted by the U.S. and Brazilian Chamber of Commerce and pesticides giant Bayer. Here, Exxon “leaders” will speak alongside members of Congress on the “economics and policy support to scale sustainable aviation fuel [SAF]”.

Experts have warned that the widespread production of SAF without sustainable practices could lead to deforestation, loss of biodiversity and competition for land with food crops.

Chevron, meanwhile, has gained access to the talks through industry groups IPIECA, a London-headquartered global oil and gas group which focuses on providing an industry channel into official UN proceedings. The group sent just three delegates: two of its own employees, and a third from Chevron.

This year, the American Petroleum Institute (API)sent just one delegate — also an executive from Chevron. The Washington D.C.-based API is the world’s biggest oil and gas industry group, with a history of undermining the global consensus on climate change.

A third Chevron executive attended as the sole delegate of the European Roundtable on Climate Change and Sustainable Transition, an independent Brussels-based think tank.

Exxon’s Woods also headlined a COP30 launch event on November 7 in Brasilia, hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Amcham Brasil to “discuss business solutions for carbon accounting and emission reductions”. Exxon has joined an industry effort to create a new carbon accounting system to create more accurate calculations of emissions-intensity, which critics have described as a “new climate delay tactic”. 

Speaking on Bloomberg’s Zero podcast on the sidelines of COP, Woods praised Trump for changing the “paradigms” of the energy transition, but insisted Exxon still has a role to play in lowering emissions. Since his inauguration in January, Trump has quit the Paris Agreement, the legally-binding international treaty to limit catastrophic temperature rise. He also defunded renewable energies and accelerated drilling for planet-heating oil and gas, while branding the climate crisis a “con job”. 

Meanwhile, away from COP, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said on Wednesday that revival of international oil and gas exploration could be at least partly attributed to the President’s energy policies.

“The Trump administration has played a critical role in opening doors and creating an environment where people are looking to do these kinds of deals,” he told Bloomberg TV.

Rees of Oil Change International said: “Trump is the fossil fuel industry’s best investment and the world is paying the price.”

He called for fossil fuel companies to be denied access to the talks.

“No Big Oil executive can claim their objectives align with the UN’s multilateral climate treaty,” Rees said.

“These companies continue to drill, pollute, and profit from the destruction of our planet and communities. Fossil fuel executives are the arsonists of the climate crisis. They cannot be trusted to help extinguish the fire.”