With 80,000 registered participants on a list that, for the first time, includes their employers, COP28 is officially the largest UN climate conference ever.
This year, the “blue zone” reserved for the real climate negotiations and the participating governments’ and organizations’ pavilions is accessible to about 104,000 individuals, including technical and security personnel.
There are around 23,500 members of official government teams this year. 27,208 policy experts, professors, members of professional associations, and top executives from major oil companies are traveling with them.
Although these visitors do not have as much access to the negotiations as the official delegates do, their presence has sparked worries about big business’s potential to sway the discussions.
Bill Gates and Antoine Arnault, the son of LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault—the second-richest person in the world behind Elon Musk—are among the guests of the host nation, according to Forbes magazine.
More than 14,000 non-governmental organizations, from lobbyists for the industry to environmental groups, are included in the accreditations list.
Fossil fuel firms need to “cease and desist influence peddling and legal threats designed to kneecap progress” in order to stop the planet’s climate from getting out of control, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in June.
Additionally, the organizers report that about 400,000 people have signed up to receive a day pass to the expansive “green zone” surrounding the talks at the Dubai Expo 2020 site, which has been transformed into a massive expo promoting companies and environmental innovation.
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