Hundreds of scientists are asking the communication agency in charge of the COP27 on the climate to abandon its clients linked to fossil fuels, considering the two missions “incompatible”, in an open letter published on Friday.
The American agency Hill+Knowlton, a subsidiary of the British advertising and communication giant WPP, is responsible for promoting the UN climate conference which opens on Sunday in Sharm el-Sheikh.
But the same agency also works for fossil fuel giants like Saudi Aramco and the American major ExxonMobil.
“We strongly believe that Hill+Knowlton’s work for these clients is incompatible with its role as public communications lead for the UN’s 2022 climate talks,” the scientists wrote in a letter drafted at the initiative. of the American association Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).
They ask that COP27 benefit from a communication team free of any “conflict” of interest.
The letter, addressed to the leaders of Hill+Knowlton and WPP, was signed by more than 400 scientists, most of them working in American universities, such as Harvard, Tufts or John Hopkins.
The agency’s oil and gas clients “have failed to take the fundamental steps needed to address the climate emergency and curb fossil fuels,” the signatories say.
COP27 in Egypt is also sponsored by Coca-Cola, a choice that has been criticized by environmental activists. Greenpeace denounced the partnership with “the biggest plastic polluter” which “produces 120 billion disposable plastic bottles a year”.
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