Message From the Editor

The core week of COP28, the UN climate conference, occurred this week in Dubai and our investigative reporters were right there to cover the action. Sam Bright has been covering the UAE backed investment fund that reached an agreement to buy The Telegraph and its sister publication.

In Dubai, Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi is attending the COP28 climate summit as a guest of the United Arab Emirates – prompting questions about his role as the intermediary in the host country’s prospective takeover of a major British newspaper. A list of COP28 participants released by the UN shows that Zahawi is the only Conservative parliamentarian to have been given access to the conference by the UAE.

To catch up on our COP coverage so far, why not take a look at our interactive map of big agriculture’s routes of influence at the conference created by Rachel Sherrington, Clare Carlile and Hazel Healy? Or refresh yourself on the six greenwashing terms you might see?

In other news, a new report by DeSmog and Drilled reveals the extent of commercial partnerships between trusted outlets and Big Oil. Some of the most-trusted news outlets in both the U.S. and Europe each have an internal brand studio that creates advertising content for fossil fuel majors. And Reuters and the New York Times are at the top of the list of the fossil fuel industry’s media enablers.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Investigative journalism like this is made possible by readers like you. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Sabrina Bedford.

Telegraph Sale ‘Middleman’ Nadhim Zahawi is a Guest of UAE at COP28

— By Sam Bright (5 min. read) —

Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi is attending the COP28 climate summit as a guest of the United Arab Emirates, DeSmog can reveal – prompting questions about his role as the intermediary in the host country’s prospective takeover of a major British newspaper.

An investment fund backed by the UAE has reached an agreement to buy The Telegraph and its sister publication the Spectator and erase the £1.16 billion debt of the Barclay brothers, their current owners.

Reuters, New York Times Top List of Fossil Fuel Industry’s Media Enablers

— By Amy Westervelt, Matthew Green and Joey Grostern (13 min. read) —

Darren Woods, the CEO of Exxon, celebrates the potential of carbon capture to dramatically reduce global emissions. According to Saudi Aramco’s podcast, the fossil fuel industry is innovating new climate solutions, and BP’s podcast proclaims more of the same. 

These messages sound like they’ve been pulled from the public-relations departments of the world’s largest oil companies, but they were produced and promoted by the in-house ad agencies of Bloomberg, Reuters, and The New York Times, respectively, and in the process benefited from the credibility those media brands have built with readers over the decades as trustworthy sources of news.

Canada May Soon Give a $15.3B ‘Carbon Bomb’ Subsidy to Big Oil, Experts Say

— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min. read) —

As world leaders meet in Dubai for the COP28 climate negotiations, federal and provincial governments in Canada are preparing to give an estimated $15.3 billion in new subsidies to oil and gas companies, and other heavy emitters, for expanding the production of fossil fuels, according to climate experts. 

Those subsidies are taking the form of massive new tax credits for carbon capture and storage (CCS), which is a technology that companies use to grow their extraction of oil and gas while burying a fraction of their greenhouse gas emissions underground.

Mapped: Big Ag’s Routes to Influence at COP28

— By Rachel Sherrington, Clare Carlile and Hazel Healy (9 min. read) —

As this year’s climate summit gets underway in Dubai, powerful food and farming companies are well positioned to ensure their interests are protected. They will use their connections to network, lobby – and even raise investment.

These agri-giants will be rubbing shoulders with over 80,000 participants – the highest attendance of any climate conference – which these days comes with increased media fanfare and activity, including protests, side events, drinks and dinners happening in and around the main event.

At COP28, the Road to Climate Action Is Paved with Big Oil Loophole Language

— Stella Levantesi (8 min. read) —

The European Union has clearly laid out its position: Climate neutrality, the Council of the EU stated last month, will require “a global phase-out of unabated fossil fuels and a peak in their consumption in this decade.” Then, in its second letter to parties, the president of COP28, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, underscored the need to “work towards a future energy system that is free of unabated fossil fuels by mid-century.” 

From having the CEO of an oil company preside over global climate negotiations, to getting a consulting firm to push the interests of its Big Oil and gas clients, it doesn’t look like a great start for the conference, set to begin on November 30th in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates. And with another recent analysis showing that fossil fuel lobbyists attended UN climate negotiations at least 7,200 times in the last 20 years, experts and campaigners are worried fossil fuel influence will, once again, obstruct climate action. 

From the Climate Disinformation Database: T Brand Studio

T Brand Studio is an advertising firm owned by The New York Times and operating within the New York Times’ New York offices. T Brand Studio specializes in native advertising within the New York Times, in which an advertisement mimics the newspaper’s news articles and graphics. Much of its work appears across New York Times platforms as “Paid Posts” and on social media. On T Brand Studio’s advertisements, a disclaimer pops up when a New York Times reader scrolls over a small question mark next to the “Paid Post” banner at the top of the advertisement. “This content was paid for by Shell and created by T Brand Studio, the brand marketing arm of The New York Times. The news and editorial staffs of The New York Times had no role in this post’s creation,” reads the disclaimer over a 2021 advertisement from Shell.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.