Petition accepted by USA, calling for fossil fuel lobbyists to be excluded from Marrakech climate talks

Marrakech climate talks: US accepts petition calling for fossil fuel lobbyists to be excluded
Petition supports nations such as Ecuador and Venezuela that tried to initiate a conflict of interests policy, Guardian, Michael Slezak, 16 Nov 16, A petition calling for fossil fuel lobbyists to be excluded from the UN climate change negotiations has been forced into the hands of the US delegation in Morocco, where almost 200 nations are meeting to work out ways to implement the 2015 Paris agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

The US delegation initially said it could not formally receive the petition signed by more than 500,000 people but later contacted Corporate Accountability International, agreeing to receive it on Wednesday.

The development followed a side event on Monday at the meeting in Marrakech, headed by the Ecuadorian delegation, where parties to the Paris agreement and non-government organisations met to discuss why a conflict of interests policy was needed and what it might look like.

The petition, spearheaded by Corporate Accountability International, calls for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to create a policy that would screen non-state participants of meetings for conflicts of interests.

It was written in support of moves by Ecuador, Venezuela and other developing nations representing the majority of the world’s population, who tried to initiate a conflict of interests policy in May.

They argued that groups representing fossil fuel companies, whose net worth can be larger than the GDPs of developing nations, and who have funded climate change denial, should not be allowed in policy negotiations without being screened for conflicts of interest.

That move was blocked by delegations representing rich nations including the EU, the US, UK and Australia, which argued that the negotiations should be “open” and that there was no clear definition of a “conflict of interest”.

“I stand with the governments calling for an end to big polluter conflicts of interest at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” the petition reads. “In order for the UNFCCC to create strong climate policy that protects people and the planet from climate catastrophe, we need to remove big polluters from the policymaking table.”

In a statement, the lead negotiator for the Ecuadorian delegation said: “Too much is at stake to continue allowing the world’s biggest polluters and their agents to undermine this process.”

He said the responsibility of saving the planet could not be left up to “the industries and their corporate powers that got us here”…..

In May, the Like Minded Group of Developing Countries – a collection of more than 20 countries representing most of the world’s population – pushed for a report to be prepared examining how “the United Nations system and other intergovernmental forums … identify and minimise the risk of conflicts of interest”.

The call was blocked by rich countries but several developing nations rose to speak passionately about the issue, including Venezuela, Ecuador and China.

Besides handing the petition to the US delegation, Corporate Accountability International is planning a protest action on the issue later this week, Bragg said. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/16/marrakech-climate-talks-us-accepts-petition-calling-for-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-to-be-excluded