Four times more delegates, who work with fossil fuel producers, are participating in this year's United Nations (UN) climate conference, activists claim.
Attendance at the COP28 world climate summit in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been announced by 2.400 people from the coal, oil and gas industry, which is a record number so far.
There are more of them than there are participants from the 10 countries most affected by climate change.
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The growth in the number of participants was noticed, among other things, because starting this year, participants must provide information about where they are employed when registering.
The data was analyzed by a coalition of green associations, which objected to the negotiations being attended by delegates working in the coal, oil and gas industries.
COP28 is the largest climate conference in the world, gathering around 97.000 politicians, diplomats, journalists and activists.
A new analysis shows that there are as many as 2.456 representatives of the coal, oil and gas and related industries at the summit in the UAE.
The COP26 conference, which was held in the British city of Glasgow, was attended by about 500 representatives from this industry.
At last year's COP27 in Egypt, there were more than 600 - four times less than this year.
Ahead of this year's negotiations, the UN introduced a more detailed application procedure, so more participants than before had to state where they work.
However, activists say that greater transparency is not the only reason for the observed growth.
"That doesn't explain the significant increase in the number of lobbyists," says George Carew-Jones of the Kick Out the Big Polluters coalition.
"The talk is that these talks will bring progress in phasing out fossil fuels, and industry representatives are here to influence the outcome as much as possible," he adds.
The coalition annually analyzes the list of participants, then identifies links to the fossil fuel industry, and says they adhere to a "rigorous methodology."
The future of fossil fuel use is an important topic of this year's conference.
The president of this year's conference, Sultan al-Jaber, wants to reach an agreement that could lead to a gradual abandonment of the use of fossil fuels.
The appointment of the Sultan to chair the conference is considered controversial, as he is also the director of the UAE's main state-owned oil company.
Al-Jaber se had previously been the target of criticism because of statements in which he expresses doubts about scientific findings that indicate that the world should abandon the use of fossil fuels.
Activists say that the number of lobbyists is a bigger problem than the issue of the presidency.
"An unreasonably large number of lobbyists for the use of fossil fuels could affect the future of all of us," said Joseph Sikulu from the organization 350.org.
He adds that their presence "undermines the integrity" of the conference.
"We came here to fight for survival, but what are our chances if our voices are threatened to be drowned out by the big polluters?" Sikulu asks.
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