UAE HIRED TENEO AHEAD OF CLIMATE TALKS: Teneo netted nearly $1.6 million for strategic advice it offered the United Arab Emirates’ clean energy company and climate office for UN climate talks that begin next month, the firm noted in a FARA filing posted Wednesday. The payout, split between an initial retainer and other services, covered work in July and from Aug. 1 through Oct. 10. — The UAE has faced public scrutiny over hosting the global negotiations, known as COP28. The world’s seventh-largest oil-and-gas producer made Sultan al-Jaber, the chief of its national oil company ADNOC, the head of the annual talks. That appointment has raised conflict-of-interest concerns: Fossil fuel consumption is the primary driver of climate change. Yet al-Jaber has asserted his ADNOC experience and his past role running Masdar, the UAE’s clean energy outfit, leaves him well-positioned to convince the oil and gas industry to green its operations. — Teneo is the latest in a string of public relations and communications firms working for the COP28 operation. The firm said in its filing dated Oct. 13 that it provided “strategic counsel to COP28 leadership team; review of and contribution to key engagement plans and communications materials; and outreach to media.†— Teneo listed Edward Cropley, Giles Kernick, Geoff Morrell, Padraic Riley, Cassandra Simpson and Jackson Wild as the registered agents on the contract. Morrell is familiar with the energy space. He was formerly the executive vice president of communication at BP, the oil and gas major, working at the company for 11 years — including during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, the largest oil spill in history. — Before joining Teneo, Morrell was briefly a spokesperson at Disney. He also served as a Defense Department spokesperson in the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. — The UAE work expanded Teneo’s presence in the Gulf. The firm has done work for Saudi Arabia’s “smart city†Neom and the Saudi sovereign wealth fund. Teneo did not respond to a request for comment, but a COP28 spokesperson told PI the firm’s scope of work was limited to providing messaging and communications advice. — “All COPs, including COP28, build their organizations from the ground up,†the spokesperson said. “COP28 has assembled a diverse team of UAE and global experts — including consultants — in climate policy, energy, technology, finance, nature, biodiversity, and other fields to develop, advance and advocate for greater climate action.†EISNER HEADS TO BGR: Scott Eisner, a top trade executive at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for nearly two decades, is leaving the business lobby to join BGR Group’s international and trade practice as a senior vice president. Eisner most recently led the Chamber’s U.S.-Africa Business Center, and in an interview, he told PI that he’s eager to work on some of the same issues through a different lens. — “It's the opportunity to look at a slightly different global view of how businesses, governments, and nonprofits and others approach challenges globally, and how do you help them craft and think through everything from ‘What are the right policies?’ to ‘What's the right messaging,’†Eisner said. WILL WEED OPPONENTS’ RECENT WINS BE FLEETING?: “Fighting weed legalization on Capitol Hill can feel like a lonely struggle these days,†but our Natalie Fertig reports that “a small but vocal, ad-hoc coalition of lawmakers — almost all Republicans — is keeping the anti-weed fight alive in Washington. And they’re not exactly losing.†— “The lawmakers, while still disorganized, scored several notable victories in recent months, thwarting progress on key cannabis bills and leaving die-hard supporters of federal legalization conceding they had been briefly outmaneuvered.†— Momentum on the Hill remains on cannabis supporters’ side, though, in part because “the anti-weed caucus, despite growing more vocal, lacks the cohesive strategy their counterparts in the pro-cannabis caucus have employed for years.†— Nearly a dozen lawmakers told Natalie “that none of the recent steps taken to fight new cannabis laws has translated into a concerted effort to organize against legalization,†which has the backing of a congressional caucus and powerful K Street groups like the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America. FLYING IN: The Opportunity Finance Network, which represents community development financial institutions, is wrapping up a fly-in that brought hundreds of advocates to the Hill on Tuesday. Advocates had more than 60 meetings scheduled with lawmakers and their staff to discuss CDFI funding and a tax credit aimed at attracting private capital into low-income communities. The group was set to meet with Sens. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) as well as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Dale Strong (R-Ala.) — Catholic health care leaders are also on the Hill this week with the Catholic Health Association, where they have more than 200 meetings scheduled on the Hill, including with the health care committees of jurisdiction, as well as HHS and the White House. The group will push back on recent criticism of the not-for-profit status of some Catholic hospitals and discuss ways to increase access to services and improve maternal health and mortality. — Autos Drive America — which represents international automakers such as BMW, Honda, Kia, Toyota, Nissan and Volvo stateside — is holding its first “drive-in†this week to tout the automakers’ investments in U.S. production facilities and discuss the labor challenges posed by transitions in the industry. They’re set to meet with more than 60 offices, including those of House Education and the Workforce Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) and Reps. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.), Sanford Bishop (D-Ga.), Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and more. SPOTTED at a National Photonics Initiative and Congressional Optics and Photonics Caucus technology show and tell last night in the Rayburn foyer, per a tipster: Rep. Joe Morelle (D-N.Y.), Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), NPI’s Jim McNally and Optica’s Liz Rogan.
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