The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that the head of state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) will lead this year’s COP28 climate summit, raising activists’ concerns that the big industry is hijacking the global response to the environmental crisis.
Sultan al-Jaber, also industry and technology minister and climate envoy, will help formulate the conference agenda and intergovernmental talks to build consensus, his office said in a statement.
The United Arab Emirates, a major exporter of OPEC oil, will be the second Arab country to host the climate conference, after Egypt in 2022.
Activists and some delegates criticized COP27, saying fossil fuel producers watered down emissions cuts and benefited from sympathetic treatment from Egypt, a natural gas exporter that often benefits from Gulf funds.
The Egyptian presidency has denied this.
The NGO Global Witness called Jaber’s appointment a “hard blow” to moving the world away from fossil fuels.
“As at last year’s summit, we are seeing more and more fossil fuel interests take control of the process, shaping it to suit their own needs,” added Teresa Anderson, global climate justice lead at ActionAid, in a statement.
More than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists attended the climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, in 2022.
“Putting an oil CEO in charge of the COP28 negotiations is clearly a conflict of interest,” said Lisa Schipper, an environmental geographer who served as lead author of the latest IPCC (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report on climate adaptation.
However, as CEO and founder of Abu Dhabi-based renewable energy company Masdar, in which Adnoc has a 24% stake, Jaber has green credentials, having overseen its mandate to embrace renewable energy in the Emirates.
He is also overseeing the acceleration of Adnoc’s low-carbon growth strategy program, approved at the end of last year.
The UAE and other Gulf producers have called for a realistic transition in which hydrocarbons would retain a role in energy security while the country makes commitments to decarbonisation.
Demands for governments and companies to leave oil and gas in the ground have gained less traction since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and Europe’s energy crisis.
The United Arab Emirates, the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, has committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.
From November 30 to December 12, COP28 will be the first global review since the historic Paris Agreement in 2015.
Jaber, who according to the statement would be the first CEO to serve as chairman of the COP, said the UAE would bring “a pragmatic, realistic and solution-oriented approach”. “We will take an inclusive approach that involves all stakeholders,” he added.
European Union climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said he would meet Jaber this week.
“As the next Presidency, the UAE has a crucial role in shaping the global response to the climate crisis,” he said on Twitter, adding that “we need to step up.”
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