Warsaw COP19 climate blog

Corporate Europe Observatory, as a member of Climate Justice Now, was asked to take part in a closing press conference at the UN climate talks on Friday 22 November. As we had already walked out of the talks, we were not able to deliver it in person, but instead presented a short written text, which we've made available below.

Democracy Now interviews CEO's Pascoe Sabido in its video "Partnering With Polluters? U.N. Climate Summit Criticized for Sponsorships by Fossil Fuel Companies"

Over 800 members of civil society walked out of the UN climate talks (COP19) on what was supposed to be the penultimate night, led by social movements like the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA) and the Bolivian Platform on Climate Change, the International Trade Union Confederation, as well as NGOs including LDC Watch and Aksyon Klima Pilipinas, who were joined by household names like Oxfam, WWF and Greenpeace. The lack of progress at the talks – combined with the increasingly overt presence of dirty polluting corporations, not to say anything of their historically negative

Over 75 organisations from across global civil society released a letter this morning calling on the United Nations and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to implement new rules to safeguard the global climate talks from the undue influence of the fossil fuel industry.

Black-listed from the coal summit, inside the business day and at loggerheads with the US Chamber of Commerce. The first few days of the second week of the international climate talks in Warsaw have been a busy time for a fly on the wall reporter of the corporate capture of COP19.

COP19, which followed the horror of typhoon Yolanda devastating the Philippines, is ignoring the crucial questions – how are we going to leave fossils fuel in the ground? How do we ensure a just transition? How do we make sure the North pays its climate debt to the South? The UNFCCC was meant to be the forum to discuss all this and find way forwards. However, lack of political will and the capitulation to corporate pressure is preventing this from happening.

COP19, which followed the horror of typhoon Yolanda devastating the Philippines, is ignoring the crucial questions – how are we going to leave fossils fuel in the ground? How do we ensure a just transition? How do we make sure the North pays its climate debt to the South? The UNFCCC was meant to be the forum to discuss all this and find way forwards. However, lack of political will and the capitulation to corporate pressure is preventing this from happening.

At the end of week one of the UN's 19th climate conference, and after thousands of people have today marched through Warsaw demanding real, just, effective and ambitious climate action, we take a look back at some of the polluters' propaganda events that have been happening inside, and outside, COP19.

Youth at this year’s UN climate talks, fed-up with the unprecedented levels of corporate capture of the negotiations, held a mock-auction to sell off the climate to the highest bidder.

IKEA, a last minute “partner” to the UNFCCC climate talks in Warsaw, COP19, has its logo plastered all over the National Stadium in Warsaw. Alongside the logos of the other corporate partners to the climate talks – from fossil fuel companies to aviation, automobile and heavy industries - an exclusive club of climate crooks providing services to the Polish organisers of the COP, in return for a fabulous greenwashing opportunity. But what are the the climate credentials of the Polish government's latest partner in crime?

New report published by CEO and TNI, a 32-page guide to the web of corporate lobbying and industry capture of COP19, the yearly UN climate negotiations, taking place in Warsaw, 11-22 November 2013. The guide exposes the eleven official corporate partners of the conference, takes a look at some of the other influential Polish lobbies, and examines an extensive list of the lobby groups attending the COP. It also covers the false solutions that are being offered up by these corporate lobbies, such as shale gas, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon markets.