Edelman, the world’s largest public relations agency, is in talks to work with the Cop30 team organising the UN climate summit in the Amazon later this year despite its prior connections to a major trade group accused of lobbying to roll back measures to protect the area from deforestation, the Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting can reveal.
“Edelman’s conflicts of interest at a climate conference are almost too many to count,” said Duncan Meisel, the executive director of Clean Creatives, which campaigns for the PR and ad industry to cut ties with fossil fuel clients. He said the agency “maintains at least a dozen contracts with fossil fuel polluters like Shell and Chevron”.
“These conflicts of interest make it impossible for Edelman to be effective advocates for Cop30’s agenda, and put the outcome of the talks in jeopardy.”