Big Tech at COP26: Here’s who attended the climate talks and what roles they played

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These days, when the world’s most important and powerful people gather to talk about matters of global consequence, executives from the world’s most powerful companies are usually in the room.Discussions about  are no exception. From power-hungry data centers to planet-spanning supply chains, tech can be a carbon-intensive business if not run correctly. And as the effects of the climate crisis — fires, floods, hurricanes and droughts — are being more keenly felt, technology companies have been increasingly vocal in the conversation about how to tackle the climate crisis.Beyond making commitments to reducing their own carbon footprints, this means showing up at events like , the UN climate summit, which took place in Glasgow, Scotland, the first two weeks of November.Though world leaders and energy company execs took the most vocal roles at COP26, many of the biggest US tech companies also attended the summit, even though their levels of visibility varied.Here’s what they were up to.The Bezos in the roomBy far the most visible tech figurehead at COP26 was former CEO — perhaps to his detriment. His presence at the UN summit got a mixed reception.During his brief trip to Glasgow (he attended the two-week-long summit for somewhere between one to two days) Bezos , the Bezos Earth Fund, he’d donate an additional $2 billion toward landscape restoration and food systems transformation after being inspired to take care of the Earth after .This made headlines but failed to impress climate activists, many of whom seemed deeply frustrated by the way Bezos engaged with the summit. It wasn’t so much his presence at COP26 that bothered them, but the fact that he used it as a PR opportunity rather than as a chance to listen to the voices of those most affected by the crisis, they said.”These kinds of people, they shouldn’t be here giving speeches, they should be here and being targeted as responsible for these changes,”said Txai Surui, a 24-year-old Indigenous activist from Rondônia in Brazil.”Why does he have more voice than young people that are suffering, or will suffer the consequences of the climate crisis?” asked Nicki Becker, a climate activist from Argentina. “Of course he has to be included in the conversation because he needs to first change his lifestyle.”She added that billionaires and other top 1% earners like Bezos are most responsible for the climate crisis, so it’s hypocritical for them to turn up with purported solutions without making any effort to change their ways (Bezos flew in and out of Glasgow on his private jet).Throughout the marches and climate protests that took place over the course of the summit, multiple people were carrying signs bearing variations on the words “We’re burning the wrong Amazon.”Amazon was a popular target of protestors.
Katie Collins/CNET
The other billionaireFormer CEO had a quieter presence at the summit than Bezos, attracting less criticism (even though he, too, appeared to fly in and out on a private jet). , updating them on the progress of his climate initiative Breakthrough Energy Ventures and calling on them to come together to start a “green industrial revolution.”He said he was spending his three days at the summit trying to encourage people to scale clean technology. “If we’re going to avoid the worst effects of a climate disaster, it’s not enough to invent zero-carbon alternatives — we need to make sure they’re affordable and accessible enough for people all over the world to use them,” he said.He also urged rich- and middle-income countries to do more to help the areas that’ve done the least to cause climate change but are most affected by it. It’s not clear, though, whether Gates spent any time at the summit talking with people from these areas. A criticism of many white, male leaders at the summit has been that who are leaders in the .”Everybody brings us a different perspective on this,” Microsoft Chief Environmental Officer Lucas Joppa said in an interview, commenting on the role tech figureheads could play at COP. “Some of these individuals, they’ve grown businesses from nothing not just to global scale,” but to a scale that the world’s never seen before. “That is exactly what the world needs to do in its transition, when you look at renewable energy penetration in the markets, for instance.”Behind the scenesAhead of the summit , , and other companies announced new pledges to further improve their own sustainability credentials. But at the event they kept a fairly low profile.Apple’s VP of Sustainability Lisa Jackson, posted on Twitter about attending COP26 and meeting with US  while there. At the summit Apple and Amazon signed on to the World Economic Forum’s First Movers Coalition, which aims to scale up emerging technologies essential to transitioning the globe’s economy to net-zero carbon by 2050.

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