Russian oligarchs and companies under sanctions are among lobbyists at Cop27

2022-11-12T13:10:08Z

Protesters at Cop27 demonstrate over fossil fuels and exploitation of poor nations by rich countries.

Russian oligarchs and executives from multiple companies under international sanctions are among the lobbyists currently attending Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh.

Attenders at the pivotal climate talks include billionaire and former aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is currently under UK sanctions. Alongside him is billionaire Andrey Melnichenko, the former head of Russian fertiliser company the EuroChem group, targeted with individual sanctions by the European Union which he disputed , calling them “absurd and nonsensical”.

Gas giant Gazprom, currently under American and EU sanctions, has sent six delegates to the crucial climate talks, alongside the managing director of Sberbank, which is also facing sanctions in Washington and Brussels. Representatives from oil company Lukoil, mining company Severstal, and Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works are also in attendance, all of which are also currently under US sanctions.

Oil and gas giant Tatneft, currently sanctioned by the EU, sent three lobbyists to the climate talks according to data compiled by the organisations Corporate Accountability, Global Witness and Corporate Europe Observatory. The Russian delegation also includes metallurgical companies Severstal and NLMK Group, part of an industry that has faced sectoral sanctions by the EU.

The Cop27 climate talks have been coloured in large part by debates on how the world should adapt to a shortage of Russian gas supplies. This follows months of fears in Europe around energy shortages stemming from Moscow’s decision to abruptly halt gas supplies to Europe, in response to international sanctions due to President Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine last February.

As delegates gather in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, environmental groups, scientists and representatives from the global south have voiced fears that Europe’s energy crisis could be used as a pretext for further gas exploration in Africa, rather than a push to scale up renewable energy resources worldwide.

The presence of industry lobbyists and oil and gas industry executives, including six representatives from the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, a lobby group designed to drum up business with Moscow, suggests that Russia is using the crucial climate talks to hunt for business.

It also suggests the Russian delegation may be looking to promote unsanctioned industries like some metals and fertiliser, which is tied up with Russia’s impact on global food supplies and the rising cost of food products, particularly in the global south.

Russia is the world’s fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases and third-largest supplier of oil, behind the United States and Saudi Arabia, with a troubled environmental record that includes a decade of drilling in the Arctic for further fossil fuels supplies as permafrost melts due to rising global temperatures.

Critics have argued that Russia had looked for ways to gain from the climate crisis, particularly in terms of Arctic drilling. Putin’s climate envoy, Ruslan Edelgeriev, told the Cop27 talks that “if there were no sanctions, or restrictions or any discriminatory approaches, the Russian Federation could have come to carbon neutrality earlier”.

Deripaska was indicted by the US justice department in September for sanctions evasion linked to his company Basic Element Limited. According to the Interfax news agency, he dropped his controlling stake in the company EN+, who sent three representatives to Sharm el-Sheikh, in 2019 under an agreement with the US Treasury’s office of foreign assets control.

Dr Oleksiy Ryabchyn, a Ukrainian member of the delegation at Cop27, said it is “ridiculous to know that Russian oligarchs are sneaking through the corridors. It is ridiculous that they are able to freely travel. For me, if these oligarchs are not able to stop this bloody war then they should not be [at Cop]. Ukrainian NGOs tried to find those Russians to organise a protest but they are hiding in offices and are afraid to walk freely in the corridor. We see that Russia is in complete isolation at this conference.”

The wealth of Melnichenko and representatives from his former company Eurochem is linked to the production of vital Russian fertilisers. In August, the head of EuroChem praised the division of the US Treasury Department responsible for enforcing global sanctions for their decision not to sanction them, saying it meant they were “recognised as a crucial player in global food supply”, while the UN chief, António Guterres, said he would work with officials to ensure the global supply of Russian fertiliser products.

“Thousands of farmers all over the world depend on us to supply them in a timely manner with the crop nutrients they need to get the most out of their land, so that they can feed their communities,” said Samir Brikho, EuroChem’s executive chair.

Ukrainian and western officials have accused Russia of using food as a weapon following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which triggered a global surge in food prices. Russia has used the rising cost of food to apply pressure on western countries supporting Ukraine, while Moscow has used increasing food costs as leverage over global south nations, including Cop27 host nation Egypt.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, told the UN in May that “the food supply for millions of Ukrainians and millions more around the world has quite literally been held hostage by the Russian military”.