PROVING COP IS A JOKE
Like oil and water? How will Sultan al-Jaber's 'shocking' COP28 presidency resonate?Issued on: 12/01/2023 -
04:37 Video by:Nadia MASSIH
The United Arab Emirates on Thursday named a veteran technocrat who both leads Abu Dhabi's state-run oil company and oversees its renewable energy efforts to be the president of the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai. For more on this controversial move, FRANCE 24 is joined by Lola Vallejo, Climate Programme Director at the IDDRI. She says that it's the "first time that a serving CEO of an oil and gas company acts as a COP president."
The United Arab Emirates on Thursday named a veteran technocrat who both leads Abu Dhabi's state-run oil company and oversees its renewable energy efforts to be the president of the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai. For more on this controversial move, FRANCE 24 is joined by Lola Vallejo, Climate Programme Director at the IDDRI. She says that it's the "first time that a serving CEO of an oil and gas company acts as a COP president."
UAE puts oil company boss in charge of Cop28 climate talks
Sultan Al Jaber, oil and climate chief for the United Arab Emirates
Published on 12/01/2023
Campaigners called on Sultan Al Jaber to step down from the UAE’s state-owned oil company to avoid a conflict of interest
Campaigners called on Sultan Al Jaber to step down from the UAE’s state-owned oil company to avoid a conflict of interest
ROFLMAO
Sultan Al Jaber, oil and climate chief for the United Arab Emirates
(Pic: Sammy Dallal / Crown Prince Court - Abu Dhabi/Flickr)
By Joe Lo
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has appointed Sultan Al-Jaber to be the president of the Cop28 climate talks in November.
Al Jaber heads the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the twelfth largest oil company in the world, and the emirates’ much smaller renewable energy firm Masdar.
He has been a key figure in national climate and energy policy for over a decade. While Al Jaber has promoted renewable energy, in November 2021 he called for increased global investment in oil and gas.
“The oil and gas industry will have to invest over $600bn every year until 2030 just to keep up with the expected demand,” he told an Abu Dhabi oil conference.
“Renewable energy is the fastest growing segment of the energy mix but oil and gas is still the biggest and will be for decades to come. The future is clean but it is not here yet. We must make progress with pragmatism,” he said.
By Joe Lo
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) government has appointed Sultan Al-Jaber to be the president of the Cop28 climate talks in November.
Al Jaber heads the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), the twelfth largest oil company in the world, and the emirates’ much smaller renewable energy firm Masdar.
He has been a key figure in national climate and energy policy for over a decade. While Al Jaber has promoted renewable energy, in November 2021 he called for increased global investment in oil and gas.
“The oil and gas industry will have to invest over $600bn every year until 2030 just to keep up with the expected demand,” he told an Abu Dhabi oil conference.
“Renewable energy is the fastest growing segment of the energy mix but oil and gas is still the biggest and will be for decades to come. The future is clean but it is not here yet. We must make progress with pragmatism,” he said.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) said in 2021 that, if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5C then there should be no investment in new fossil fuels. They calculated that the supply of oil should drop by three-quarters between 2020 and 2050.
In October 2022, the IEA projected that even under existing policies, global fossil fuel demand would peak and decline steadily from the mid‐2020s.
Mixed reception
Reaction to Al Jaber’s appointment was mixed. The head of the Climate Action Network campaign group, Tasneem Essop, said it was a conflict of interest to lead climate talks at the same time as heading an oil company.
She said: “If he does not step down as CEO, it will be tantamount to a full scale capture of the UN climate talks by a petrostate national oil company and its associated fossil fuel lobbyists. Cop26 in Glasgow had 500 fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance, the Cop [27] in Egypt saw a 25% increase in their presence, Cop28 now seems to be open season for vested interests who will no doubt use the climate talks to continue to undermine any progress on climate action. As civil society we demand that Al Jaber does the right thing and either stand aside or step down.”
The last hours of Cop27 were marked by fierce debate, in closed meetings, on whether governments should agree to “phase out fossil fuels”. Oil and gas producing states like Saudi Arabia opposed this language, but the argument is not going away.
Yvo De Boer, who led the UN’s climate body between 2006 and 2010, said that Al Jaber had been “instrumental” in bringing the International Renewable Energy Agency to the UAE and adopting “a sound green growth strategy” with renewable investments domestically and abroad.
“This equips him with the understanding, experience and responsibility to make Cop28 ambitious, innovative and future focussed,” De Boer said.
In 2010, the US ambassador to UAE Richard Olson described him as part of the “progressive group” on climate in the UAE government.
Another Man
The UAE’s female environment minister Mariam Al Mheiri was overlooked.
Similarly, Egypt promoted the male foreign minister Sameh Shoukry over female environment minister and climate scientist Yasmine Fouad.
The UK sacked female clean growth minister Claire Perry O’Neill, who lobbied to host Cop26, before the conference and put male energy minister Alok Sharma in charge.
Two women have been appointed to supporting roles. Razan Al Mubarak, one of the UAE’s leading nature conservationists, has been made “high level champion” and tasked with increasing the climate ambition of businesses and non-state actors.
Shamma Al Mazrui, aged 29, will be youth climate champion.
Read more on: UN climate talks
Oil boss as climate talks host: what's behind UAE's choice?
Dubai (AFP) – The United Arab Emirates has picked the head of its national oil company as president of this year's COP28 climate talks, prompting criticism from environmental activists.
Here we examine the UAE's reasons for choosing Sultan Al Jaber and what message it is sending ahead of the UN climate talks later this year.
Who is Sultan Al Jaber?
Al Jaber is the chief executive of the UAE's Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), which is one of the world's biggest oil firms.
The 49-year-old, who was educated in the United States and Britain, is also the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.
He was named the UAE's special climate envoy in 2020, a post he also previously held from 2010-2016.
He is also the founder of Masdar -- a multibillion-dollar, state-backed company that invests in renewable energy, backing projects in more than 40 countries since it was founded in 2006, according to UAE state media.
Global temperature anomalies © Julia Han JANICKI / AFP
Al Jaber, who has taken part in more than 10 COP meetings, headed the UAE's delegation to the last UN climate summit in Egypt. It was by far the biggest delegation to attend the talks, and one of the largest in COP history.
In 2009, he was appointed to the UN's Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change by Ban Ki-Moon, the then secretary general.
"Sultan Al Jaber has been spearheading the UAE's climate action well before and during his tenure at ADNOC," said climate expert Karim Elgendy, Associate Fellow at Britain's Chatham House think tank.
Why the controversy?
Holding COP28 in a major oil-producing country has provoked concern from activists urging a shift away from oil, which produces the greenhouse gases that heat the planet.
Those worries were only stoked by the choice of a fossil fuel executive as the face of the talks.
Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International said it was a "conflict of interest" to choose a figure "heading an industry that is responsible for the crisis itself".
Jaber's nomination also heightened concerns that lobbyists looking to delay the phasing-out of fossil fuels will be given more sway.
Already, the COP26 in Scotland had 500 fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance -- a figure that only increased with COP27 in Egypt, with the UAE sending the highest number.
"COP28 needs to conclude with an uncompromised commitment to a just phase out all fossil fuels: coal, oil and gas," said Tracy Carty from Greenpeace International.
"There is no place for the fossil fuel industry in the global climate negotiations."
What's the message?
The UAE -- one of the world's biggest crude producers -- "sees no contradiction" in the selection of Al-Jaber, Elgendy said.
The Gulf nation has repeatedly maintained that oil and gas will be needed for decades to power the world economy, while generating revenues that could be invested in renewable energy sources.
"The choice of Dr Sultan is absolutely representative of the UAE's approach to climate action, which pledges to decarbonise its economy... but advocates for its moral right to export every molecule of fossil fuel," Elgendy said.
"It argues that the world will still need some fossil fuel supplies by 2050 and that these should come from the lowest cost and lowest carbon producers," namely Gulf Arab countries, Elgendy added.
The UAE is also a strong advocate for including oil executives in the climate conversation, arguing that their experience in the energy industry is helpful in tackling climate change.
"For Gulf countries, where oil wealth contributes significantly to the economy, a great deal of climate action will need to come from this exact sector," said Aisha Al-Sarihi, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore's Middle East Institute.
"Excluding the oil industry from the negotiating table might not serve the region," the Omani expert told AFP.
© 2023 AFP
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