International groups, Indigenous People stage protest against 2400 pro-fuel lobbyists at COP28

Coalition demands real climate solution

By Samuel Ogunsona reporting from Dubai

Several international groups and hundreds of indigenous people have staged protests against the presence of some 2400 fossil fuel lobbyists at the ongoing climate action summit in Dubai.

The 2400 delegates are representing oil companies who feed fat on the misery and agony of millions of polluted vulnerable oil and gas producing communities.

The coalition, #KeepBigPollutersOut (KBPO) claimed that over 2,400 lobbyists have been given access to the summit which is more than what COP had last year in Sharm El-Sheikh (636) and the year before in Glasgow (503).

The KickBigPollutersOut (KBPO) is a coalition of more than 100 international organizations which includes
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Greenpeace and ActionAid.

The coalition said fossil fuel lobbyists are the biggest delegates presently at COP28 being part of the trade organisation.

One of the protesters who spoke to journalists, Zikora Ibeh, said over 2400 lobbyists are present at COP28.

He said the polluters have built so much wealth on the back of the vulnerable people.

She said, “We can no longer drink our water, our waters are polluted, they have built so much wealth on the back of vulnerable people as they never stop. We have heard from the president that phasing out fossil fuel is not science.”

Zikora who is also the Research Officer at CAPPA said the conversation will not stop until the polluters are kicked out of the clean energy space.

“We will continue to hold this conversation because they can no longer hold us in a chokehold” Zikora stated.

“Two million people have died as a result of climate disasters in just a tip of an eye” coalition claims.

An indigenous man who came from one of the vulnerable communities affected by the climate crisis told Irohinodua that his community has been witnessing dangerous events day by day which they know nothing about.

He said, “I am from a country vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Everyday, one way or another we witness dangerous events we did not create that takes away the lives of our people. This is not just a statistic. The numbers here represent two million people each with dreams that have been taken away from them by drought and other climate disasters that have ravaged our planets. They are not natural caused by big polluters, fossil fuel industry and the big corporations in the global world. This is not negligence, it is a conscious and malicious act against the people and the future of this planet”

“We stand here today to say enough is enough
It is time to kick the real polluters out of the COP and out of our lives” he added.

He argued that there will be 1.2billion of refugees by 2050 if care is not taken.

He said “We are not afraid and they can not silent us. We will not be silent. We know where we come from and we are not disgraced people, we have only been displaced,” the coalition added.