UAE Oil Chief To Lead COP28 Climate Talks

The Chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), Sultan al-Jaber was named on Thursday as the first CEO at the 2023 COP28 climate submit.

The announcement was revealed in a statement carried out by the official WAM news agency.​​​​​​

“I sincerely believe that climate action today is an immense economic opportunity for investment in sustainable growth,” he was quoted as saying, promising a “pragmatic” approach.

Jaber, the UAE's minister of industry, also serves as the country's special representative on climate change and has attended more than ten COP conferences.

According to a statement, he has "played a vital role in developing the country's clean energy agenda" and is the CEO of Masdar, the UAE's renewable energy firm.

However, environmentalists immediately criticised his hiring. It "poses an unacceptable conflict of interest," according to Harjeet Singh, director of the global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.

Teresa Anderson, global lead on climate justice at ActionAid, an NGO, said: “This appointment goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.”

And Rachel Kyte, dean of the Fletcher School of international affairs at Tufts University in the US, warned: “The incoming COP president has a dilemma.

“The UAE is competing to be the most efficient and lowest-cost source of fossil fuels as global production must diminish through the energy transition,” she said.

“It will be challenging as COP president to unite countries around more aggressive action while at the same time suggesting that other producers stop producing because UAE has you covered.

“We don’t have the planetary space for mixed messages,” she added.

The conclusion of COP27, which was held in Egypt in November, saw the ratification of a contentious document on aid to developing nations affected by climate change, but no new goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions were established.

The following edition will be held in Dubai in November and December.

The UAE is one of the major producers of oil on the globe. At the talks from the previous year, it had the biggest delegation of oil and gas lobbyists.

The Gulf monarchy contends that oil is still essential to the world economy and is promoting carbon capture, which involves collecting carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas, from the air or as fuel is consumed.

“Limiting global warming to 1.5C will require significant reductions in emissions, a pragmatic, practical and realistic approach to the energy transition and more help for emerging economies,” the UAE’s statement said, referring to the goal set at previous COP summits.

Due to its location in one of the world's hottest regions, where summer temperatures can reach up to 50 degrees Celsius, the UAE is one of the nations most affected by climate change (122 degrees Fahrenheit).

Parts of the Gulf may become too hot for human habitation by the end of this century, according to research released in 2021.

The UAE has made ambitious environmental announcements, including plans for a nuclear power plant to be completely operational by 2024 and 20 gigawatts of installed solar capacity by 2030.

But the Gulf state also projects that to meet anticipated demand through 2030, the oil and gas sector will need to invest more than $600 billion annually.

The UAE and Jaber received backing from former UN climate chief Yvo de Boer, who said that Jaber's work in renewable energy and "green growth strategy" has equipped him with the "knowledge, expertise, and responsibility" to ensure the success of COP28.

According to the World Bank, the UAE was the fourth-largest polluter per capita in the world in 2019 due to its extensive usage of air conditioning, desalinated water, and ubiquitous SUVs on 10-lane highways.

By 2050, when it plans to achieve domestic carbon neutrality, which omits emissions from its exported oil, it wants to have enough renewable energy to meet half of its demands.