December 9, 2023
DUBAI—A new analysis conducted by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) uncovered the presence of at least 475 lobbyists at COP28 specializing in Carbon Capture (Utilization) and Storage (CC(U)S) projects. This analysis comes three days after the Kick Big Polluters Out Coalition reported a record 2,456 fossil fuel lobbyists gaining access to this year’s climate talks.
“The fossil fuel industry’s presence in Dubai and their aggressive push to sell the idea that carbon pollution can be ‘managed’ and ‘captured’ is a sign of their desperation. CCS, the industry’s lifeline and latest delay tactic, is a smokescreen we must not fall for. At COP28, we are facing an onslaught of lobbyists trying to carve a massive loophole into the energy package with a technology that has consistently overpromised and under-delivered,” said Lili Fuhr, Director of the Fossil Economy Program at CIEL. “A COP28 decision that legitimizes CCS would lock us into temperature overshoot and more loss and damage. It would also serve as a fuse to ignite some of the largest carbon bombs on this planet. We can’t afford to allow CCS and fossil fuel lobbyists to peddle false solutions and distract from the real problem: the ongoing production and burning of fossil fuels. It’s time to confront the core driver of the climate crisis, not entertain ineffective band-aids.”
CC(U)S has been a key topic at COP28, with lobbyists advocating for its implementation as a climate solution, and attempts to include loopholes for “abated” fossil fuels in the energy package are unfolding. However, critics argue that this technology, which aims to trap carbon dioxide emissions and store them underground or use them in industrial processes, serves more as a lifeline for the fossil fuel industry rather than a genuine solution to climate change.
The analysis shows that these 475 lobbyists include representatives from companies involved in CCUS projects, as per an International Energy Agency (IEA) database, and other companies and organizations that have a public track record of specifically advocating for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. Many more representatives of other fossil fuel companies and their supporters present in Dubai may also be using COP28 to promote carbon capture and related technologies (such as Direct Air Capture) to cover up their continued emissions and attempt to delay the phaseout of fossil fuels.
This group, if considered a single delegation, would be one of the largest at the talks, surpassing and tripling the United States’ official delegation of 159 diplomats and substantially outnumbering the official 316 indigenous representatives.
The presence of so many fossil fuel companies with interests in carbon capture is reflective of the industry’s claim that it can continue producing and using oil, gas, and coal without harming the climate through CCS, which purports to enable polluters to trap their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and bury them underground, under the seabed, or use the CO2 in the production of fuels or fertilizers.
There are pressing questions over the use of CCS to provide cover for the fossil fuel industry to continue its pollution. CCS may also:
- Be “highly economically damaging,” and cost at least USD 30 trillion more than a pathway based primarily on renewable energy, energy efficiency, and electrification, according to a new report from Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment.
- Enable and worsen harms to communities already burdened by fossil fuel infrastructure with increased air pollution.
- Pose significant risks of leakage and other harms stemming from transporting and storing CO2.
One prominent CCS lobbyist attending COP28 is ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, who has been granted a badge as a guest of the UAE as COP28 host. ExxonMobil markets itself as “a global leader in carbon capture and storage,” however its CCS projects have consistently fallen short of its carbon capture goals. Carbon that ExxonMobil has captured has fueled continued oil production through a process known as Enhanced Oil Recovery, while the company has fought regulations to prevent CO2 leakage.
In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Woods promoted carbon capture saying that discussions thus far had “put way too much emphasis on getting rid of fossil fuels, oil and gas, and not . . . on dealing with the emissions associated with them.”
CCS has been heavily promoted at COP28 by fossil fuel interests and their allies who are speaking at dozens of side events. The theme has also been taken up by national delegations who relaunched the “Carbon Management Challenge” in a high level roundtable with the COP28 Presidency on Tuesday.
Australia, Canada, Egypt, the European Union, Japan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Norway, and Denmark announced further government support for the development and deployment of CCUS and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies. The initiative was expected to set a target to store 1.2 Gt of CO2 by 2030, a 26-fold increase on the claimed existing CCS capacity of 45Mt and a nearly ten-fold increase on the current project CCS capacity by 2030.
Government representatives at the high-level roundtable claimed that CCUS and CDR are “essential to keeping 1.5°C in reach” though no new concrete targets were announced. The conversation ignored decades of failed projects, wasted public subsidies, and broken promises.
CCS projects have routinely failed to live up to their hype and full lifecycle emissions are often not taken into account, including in the use of captured carbon for enhanced oil recovery, which over 70% of captured carbon is used for. However, even if this 1.2Gt ‘carbon management’ target were reached it would only amount to the capacity to store 3% of 2022’s annual emissions.
CDR technologies like Direct Air Capture (DAC), promoted by COP28 President Al Jaber and oil industry figures like Oxy CEO Vicki Hollub who is another guest of the UAE at COP28, have similarly been deployed to justify delaying the phaseout of fossil fuels. Hollub told an oil industry conference in March 2023 that direct air capture “gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”
According to a recently published CIEL report, Al Jaber, ADNOC and Oxy share close ties over DAC and CCS related deals. The report also exposes the potential for DAC to do more harm than good by perpetuating the lifespan of fossil fuel infrastructure and diverting resources away from more effective and proven climate solutions.
Methodology Notes:
The IEA’s CCUS dataset covers projects that have been commissioned since the 1970s, and have an announced capacity of more than 100,000 tonnes per year. Other CCS lobbyists have been identified on the basis of their public statements advocating for carbon capture, and the work of other groups who have investigated CCS lobbying, for example Influence Map’s recent study on carbon capture lobbying which found that corporate advocacy in favor of CCS between 2021 and 2023 has been dominated by the oil and gas sector, which uses a wide range of influence tactics – from PR and advertising to regulatory lobbying – to promote the technology.
Breakdowns are included for CCS lobbyists by delegation, by disclosed organizational affiliation and CCS lobbyists included in country delegations.
CIEL supports the The Kick Big Polluters Out campaign for the UN climate body and governments to continue on the road towards a robust Accountability Framework to address the problem of fossil fuel lobbying at climate talks.
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Media Contact:
Niccolò Sarno, press@ciel.org, +41-22-506 80 37 (Signal and WhatsApp)