THE president of COP28 for the climateThe Sultan Al Jaberwho is also the chairman of an oil company, wanted to take advantage of his role at the UN climate conference to strike deals on fossil fuels, the BBC reported today.

“The documents cited in the BBC article are inaccurate and have not been used by COP28 during the meetings,” responded a spokesperson for COP28, which runs from Thursday until December 12 in Dubai.

“It is extremely disappointing that the BBC is using unverified documents,” the spokesman added.

“I can’t believe this is true,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reacted when asked by reporters.

The BBC relies for its investigation on documents collected by journalists from the Center for Climate Reporting (CCR).

The documents, whose authenticity this center claims to have verified, were obtained through a “public interest witness” who remains anonymous for fear of reprisals, the CCR clarifies.

These are 150 pages of briefings prepared by the COP28 team for meetings with Sultan Al Jaber between July and October 2023.

The documents thus disclosed, the BBC points out, were drawn up by the Emirates COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments ahead of the summit.

They include “talking points” such as one on China, according to which Emirates oil company Adnoc wants to “jointly evaluate international opportunities” for liquefied natural gas in Mozambique, Canada and Australia.

According to the BBC, the United Arab Emirates team did not question the use of COP28 meetings for business discussions and made it known that “private meetings remain private”.

According to CCR and the BBC, more than 12 countries contacted by the two organizations did not respond, several questioned trade talks with Sultan Al Jaber, despite talking points appearing in briefings prepared ahead of the meetings, and another five said that no meeting took place.

For Kaisa Kosonen, the policy coordinator at Greenpeace International, the summit “should focus on promoting climate solutions impartially, not on markets fueling the crisis”.

“This is exactly the kind of conflict of interest we feared when the CEO of an oil company was appointed to this position,” Kosonen added.

The choice of the Adnoc boss to chair COP28 had already been heavily criticized by environmental groups.

“If these accusations are true, they are completely unacceptable and a real scandal,” Greenpeace responded in a statement, three days before the start of the UN climate conference.