Organizers of this year’s UN climate talks in the United Arab Emirates have hired a controversial former Downing Street aide, Boris Johnson, raising concerns among some environmentalists.
Lobbyist David Canzini, who advised the former British prime minister in his final months in office, is working on communications for COP28 ahead of December’s climate summit in Dubai, according to several people familiar with the matter.
At No. 10, Canzini opposed a windfall tax on oil and gas companies and pushed Johnson to take a less aggressive stance on onshore wind farms.
Canzini is working on COP28 with other staff seconded by CT Group, the lobbying firm founded by Australian political strategist Sir Lynton Crosby, according to people familiar with the matter. CT advises industries including the oil and gas industry.
A right-wing strategist who has dealt with Britain’s ruling Conservative Party for decades, Canzini was brought into Downing Street in February 2022 to serve as Johnson’s deputy chief of staff, five months after the then prime minister was accused of “party doors”. “Scandal was deposed.
He is a longtime ally of Crosby, who helped Johnson win two London mayoral elections and advised several Conservative prime ministers. Before joining Number 10, Canzini worked for CT Group.
COP28 did not comment specifically on Canzini’s appointment, but said it had “contracted CT Group to provide communications advice”, including a three-person panel embedded in its communications team.
A spokesperson for COP28 UAE added that its senior team includes people with significant renewable energy and climate policy expertise, including the former director-general of the International Renewable Energy Agency Irena.
CT Group does not publish a list of its clients. However, lobbying registrations in the Australian state of New South Wales, which has mandatory disclosure rules, show it applies to the Australian Institute of Petroleum Production and Exploration and BHP Billiton, which owns mining and oil assets.
Earlier this year, the UAE faced criticism from climate activists after it named Sultan al-Jabir, head of state-backed oil producer ADNOC, as COP28 chair-designate.
Since taking office, Al-Jaber, who was also at the forefront of the UAE’s early renewable energy development, has stressed the importance of involving the oil and gas industry in discussions on how to tackle global warming. The COP28 team is forming an oil and gas industry coalition as a flagship initiative of the summit, the Financial Times reported over the weekend.
Canzini’s appointment has heightened concerns among some environmentalists. Alice Harrison, head of the fossil fuel campaign at Global Witness, said COP28’s decision to hire Canzini seemed “very in line with what already looks like a summit for polluters”.
Mohamed Addo, director of Nairobi-based climate and energy think tank Power Shift Africa, said Canzini’s appointment “posed a real threat to the global effort to tackle climate change and the credibility of the summit”.
This year’s Conference of the Parties will conduct a so-called global stocktake, when countries will assess their progress in achieving emissions cuts aimed at limiting the rise in global temperatures to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
It was unclear whether Canzini’s work for COP28 was directly through CT Group or through his own communications agency called Canzini Direction, which he set up in December, it said. company building.
Canzini and CT Group did not respond to requests for comment.
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