January 12, 2023

Commenting on the appointment, Teresa Anderson, Global Lead on Climate Justice at ActionAid, said:

“This appointment goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.

The UN Climate Summit is supposed to be a space where the world holds polluters to account, but increasingly it’s being hijacked by those with opposing interests. Like last year’s summit, we’re increasingly seeing fossil fuel interests taking control of the process and shaping it to meet their own needs.

“For the summit hosts to be taken seriously as honest brokers for change, they need to go above and beyond to avoid a conflict of interest. This is vital for the safety and protection of our planet. Unfortunately, COP28 looks like it is off to a bad start in that regard.”

ENDS

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About ActionAid

ActionAid is a global federation that works with more than 15 million people living in more than 40 of the world’s poorest countries. We want to see a just and sustainable world in which everyone enjoys the right to a dignified life and freedom from poverty and oppression. We work for social justice and gender equality, and poverty eradication.