This week, the 2019 UN Climate Change Conference (COP25) will descend upon Madrid following an ad-hoc relocation from Santiago, Chile, after huge protests erupted against the government. These international negotiations are expensive events to organize and corporate sponsorship has become an unfortunate norm for host governments to pursue and Spain is no exception. For Santiago, the Chilean government had secured the financial backing of the country’s mining, manufacturing and employers associations. For Madrid, the acting Minister for Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, has knocked on the doors of the large companies of the Ibex35 and the Spanish employers’ association for the financing of the Conference. An excellent opportunity for “greenwashing” of the main companies emitting greenhouse gases and responsible for numerous socio-environmental conflicts around the world.
They will not only improve their corporate image, they will also obtain economic advantages, such as the tax breaks the Spanish government is considering giving to those who help foot the bill. These types of measures are common in the privileged relationship that exists between the Spanish government and transnational companies. The tariff policy in favour of electricity companies, the barriers to energy self-production and the stop of promotion of energies such as photovoltaics respond to the constant movement of “revolving doors” between the Spanish executive and the large energy companies. The two best-known examples were former presidents Felipe Gonzalez and Jose Maria Aznar, signed by Gas Natural and Endesa respectively, with the latter officially announced as a COP25 sponsor. In addition, they have the capacity to influence the negotiations that, according this year’s agenda that could fundamentally impact the business models of many of the global industries the sponsors represent.
Last year in Poland, the conference was bankrolled by some of the region’s largest fossil fuel corporations and financiers. And this year, Iberdrola, Endesa, Santander and Telefónica have agreed to be sponsors among others. Iberdrola, a global power utility, has gas operations around the globe, a fossil fuel that industry wants to sell as a solution to climate change but with devastating social and environmental consequences. Iberdrola has also invested in megadam project Belo Monte in Brazil, which has displaced some 25,000 people including indigenous groups. Endesa, also a big utility in Spain, operates coal, oil and gas power plants and was responsible for emitting 61.9 million tons of CO2 equivalent in 2018. The sponsors’ business models are inextricably linked with fossil fuels and therefore help to drive the climate crisis.
Sponsorship is a symptom of a larger problem of corporate capture at the UNFCCC. Inside the talks, trade associations representing the interests of the fossil fuel industry and other Big Polluters stalk the halls and push their members’ agenda. The result of this corporate omnipresence is clearthe negotiations move at a snail’s pace and more often than not reflect the interests of global corporations, not people and the planet.