EU Lawmakers Vote to Curb Fossil Fuel Influence on UN Climate Talks

A motion passed by the European Parliament seeks to address conflicts of interest between coal, oil, and gas lobbyists and environmental protection.

The European Parliament has agreed to push to curb the access of fossil fuel lobbyists at international climate negotiations.

MEPs on Wednesday voted for a motion that gives a European Parliament delegation to the UN Framework Convention of Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings license to encourage countries to limit the access of organisations that could dampen the ambition of the process.

Swedish Green MEP Max Andersson, who was instrumental in tabling the motion, said countries at the talks could now point to European Parliament’s stance to make sure the issue of corporate lobbying stayed on the agenda.  He told DeSmog UK:  “As a member of the European Parliament, I see the impacts of corporate lobbying every week…

“The coal and oil lobby have enormous economic incentive in trying to get the solutions postponed.  They want to burn as much coal and oil as possible.  And we see that they are lobbying at the climate conferences, and we think it has an impact.

“Organisations that don’t even want the Paris Agreement to exist should not be observers at the climate conference.  We could just have that as a starting point.”

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