there are far fewer, proportionally, climate activists here than at previous summits, because so many of them were limited in getting credentials. And yet it’s the largest U.N. climate summit ever, with the, by far, largest number of oil, fossil fuel lobbyists.
HARJEET SINGH:
It is deeply, deeply problematic to see how fossil fuel lobbyists are taking over these climate talks. And that’s exactly the concern that we have been raising right from the day one, when it was announced that UAE is going to be the host of climate talks, and we got an oil executive leading the conversation here. And this is our fear really coming true. We can’t just allow fossil fuel industry to define what needs to happen here. We want governments to regulate this industry that has caused the problem in the first place.
And we are here to demand that we need fossil fuel phaseout in a just and equitable manner. And that language is what we are expecting to appear in the next few days, because that’s the message that we have to send to the world, which is already facing climate crisis. We cannot afford any other language which creates any confusion or leaves any kind of loopholes that fossil fuels can still continue. And we just cannot do that, as we see how rising temperatures are wrecking the planet.
— source democracynow.org | Dec 06, 2023