UK Will (Ostensibly) Not Allow Oil & Gas Majors As Sponsors For COP 26, Assuming It Happens In 2021
Like in previous years, the UK hosts of the two-week event are seeking corporate sponsors to shoulder some of the cost, initially estimated at £250 million ($330m).
Unlike in previous years, which have seen large polluters use such deals to bolster their green credentials, sponsors of Cop26 are expected to have a credible plan to cut their emissions to net zero by 2050, the official website states. Climate Home News understands that oil and gas majors will not be considered.
Rachel Rose Jackson, director of climate research and policy at the Boston-based NGO Corporate Accountability, has long campaigned for polluters to be “kicked out” of climate talks. She told CHN that, if confirmed, the decision to exclude oil and gas companies from sponsorship deals would be “a testament to the strength of the movement”. “For years, the UN climate talks have failed to deliver for people on the global frontlines of the climate crisis, yet has rolled out the red carpet for the world’s largest polluters,” she said.
EDIT
Air France, gas and electricity company Engie and carmaker Renault were among the sponsors of Cop21 in Paris in 2015, when countries agreed to limit global temperature rise “well below 2C” by the end of the century. In 2018, Poland’s leading coal company Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW) sponsored the climate talks held in Katowice, at the heart of the country’s coal-producing region. The Polish pavilion memorably advertised coal-shaped bars of soap. Last year, corporate accountability groups accused Spain of allowing its biggest polluters to use the climate summit in Madrid to “wrap themselves in the green branding of the COP”.
EDIT
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/08/18/big-oil-need-not-apply-uk-raises-bar-un-climate-summit-sponsorship/