Who are the sponsors of Cop26, the climate conference in Glasgow
COP26 sponsors include Microsoft, Hitachi, Gsk and Unilever. Here's what the UK has offered businesses and why
COP26, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, will be held from 31 October to 12 November in Glasgow, United Kingdom. Participants over a hundred heads of state or government from around the world, with the aim of finding a common approach to the climate crisis.
It's strange for such a summit to even think that there may be corporate sponsors, Quartz writes. But there are eleven of them: among these, the names of Microsoft, Hitachi, Unilever, GSK and Sky stand out.
WHY SPONSORS AT COP?
Quartz explains that other editions of the COP have also had sponsors: their presence is important both to increase the “value” of the summit (with an eye to the national taxpayers who paid for it with taxes) and to reduce its financial costs.
THE FIGURES
The British government has not disclosed the extent of the sums paid by the sponsors. To get an idea, the companies that sponsored the Paris climate summit in 2015 (from which the famous agreement came out) paid about 17.7 million dollars: a tenth, more or less, of the costs of the event.
Security costs for COP26 alone amounted to $ 343 million.
WHAT THE UNITED KINGDOM HAS OFFERED TO COMPANIES
To convince companies to sponsor COP26, the British government has promised "unique benefits", writes Quartz : for example, the presence of ministers at their events, or the possibility of having spaces available to promote their brands.
The effect, however, is that the event may look more like a fair than a climate conference. Hitachi also complained that some rival companies are present in the "blue zone", which is the one managed by the United Nations and reserved for delegates.
THE ATTRACTIVENESS OF COP26
To push companies to sponsor COP26 is the fact that the expectations associated with the event are very high and the brands have every interest in being associated with the biggest and most demanding challenge of our times: mitigating climate change, "saving the Earth ”from global warming.
UNILEVER AND BIG OILS
During COP26 Unilever – one of the five largest producers of polluting plastics in the world, according to a report by a coalition of activist groups – will broadcast its own film on the importance of achieving a world with low emissions and environmental impact.
The British government refused to accept sponsorship from oil companies for COP26, which they tried too: both Equinor and BP and Shell. There will also be corporate events completely disconnected from the climate issue: for example, Reckitt will have its own space to promote a hygiene program aimed at children.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/cop26-sponsor/ on Tue, 19 Oct 2021 07:23:49 +0000.