Glasgow, UK - The upcoming COP26 climate summit has been making some pretty big claims of sustainability, from the conference venue to the food menu. But scratch beneath the surface and it isn't all green and clean – especially when it comes to the main sponsors.

The main COP26 sponsors emitted 350 million metric tons of CO2 in 2020 – that's a lot.

NatWest Group is in the top 50 banking corporations pumping money into fossil fuels, according to the most recent Banking on Climate Chaos report. NatWest spent $13.39 billion dollars on the fossil fuel industry in the past 5 years alone, but the emissions due to the banking corporation's funding were not included in the grand total of COP26 sponsors' emissions.

Energy companies National Grid and Scottish Power get electricity from polluting fuels, too, not just from renewable energy, and both companies have their fingers in dirty pies. In the US, National Grid is directly involved in fracking, and Scottish Power's subsidiary, Iberdrola, is the eighth-biggest polluter in Spain.

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Microsoft gets an extra-special mention here, because the tech giant is using the accounting trick of green certificates to claim 100% renewable electricity for its whole business – all while actively lobbying against the $3.5 trillion infrastructure bill still and its climate provisions being negotiated in Congress.

Together, the principle sponsors are responsible for more emissions than all domestic emissions of the UK, France, Spain, or Italy.

This summit's main sponsors are a perfect example of how deeply involved fossil fuel is in the climate conversations – but it doesn't have to be this way. As ever, young people are showing the way forward by pressuring the youth climate conference to drop its environmentally questionable sponsors.