UAE names oil company chief to lead UN climate talks COP28

“Sultan al-Jaber has the credentials and background to lean into existing trends,” said Ryan Bohl, a Mideast analyst with the RANE Network, a risk-intelligence organization. “As an oilman, I don’t think that will be a major danger for him.”

Al-Jaber, a long-time climate envoy who is 49 years old, is in favor of “a pragmatic, practical, and solutions-oriented approach” to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050, according to the Emirates’ state-run WAM. According to scientists, this restriction can avoid or at least mitigate some of the most devastating future climate change effects.

However, Al-nomination Jaber’s was met with swift condemnation. According to Harjeet Singh, the head of Global Political Strategy at Climate Action Network International, al-position Jaber’s as CEO of an oil corporation presents an “unusual and worrisome conflict of interest.”

“Polluters have no place in a climate conference, let alone presiding over a COP,” Singh remarked.

UAE Has More Climate Talks

“You wouldn’t ask arms merchants to conduct peace talks,” said Alice Harrison of Global Witness. So, why should oil execs be in charge of climate talks?” Greenpeace expressed “grave concern” about al-appointment, Jaber’s saying it “sets a hazardous precedent, jeopardizing the UAE’s reputation and the faith that has been placed in them.”

Each year, the country hosting the United Nations deliberations known as the Conference of the Parties — from which the acronym COP is derived — chooses a chairperson. Because the talks can be extremely difficult to direct between rival states and their interests, the hosts usually choose a senior diplomat. Delegates normally confirm the nominee’s position as “COP president” without opposition before the commencement of the negotiations.

When asked if Secretary-General Antonio Guterres thinks someone linked with fossil fuels should lead COP28, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the U.N. had “absolutely no participation” in the selection.

“Having said that, the evidence is crystal clear: We are losing the battle to mitigate the worst effects of the climate disaster,” Dujarric added. “The secretary-general reiterates that there is no way to avoid such a climatic disaster unless we abandon our reliance on fossil fuels.”

Foreign Minister Chastised

The caliber of COP presidents has shifted over time. Most people thought that Alok Sharma of the United Kingdom was energetic and driven to reach a high goal.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, on the other hand, was chastised by some for the chaotic and, at times, the opaque manner in which he presided over the meeting last year.

During the summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, which Shoukry oversaw, a call by countries such as India and the United States for a phase-down of oil and natural gas, for example, was not discussed publicly.

Activists are concerned that the COP being held in a Mideast country relying on fossil fuel sales for the second year in a row may result in something similar happening in the Emirates.

According to WAM, the UAE has spent “more than $50 billion in renewable energy projects across 70 nations, with oil intentions to invest at least $50 billion over the next decade.”

30 Billion Invested In Renewable Energy

Masdar announced Friday that it had invested or committed $30 billion in renewable energy projects and oil. According to the New York-based research firm Global SWF, Mubadala,  UAE Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund, has invested $3.9 billion in renewable energy since 2018.

According to Global SWF, Mubadala invested $9.8 billion in oil and gas projects during the same period.

The UAE is home to a major solar park in Dubai and the Arabian Peninsula’s only atomic energy source, the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant. But it takes a lot of energy to run the desalination plants that bring green golf courses to the desert areas, the air conditioners that keep the huge malls cool in the summer, and heavy industries like aluminum smelters.

The UAE’s renewable energy policy expanded in the mid-2000s when its real-estate boom saw it build its tallest and enormous, palm-shaped archipelagos off its coast. At the time, the World Wildlife Fund said that each person in the UAE had the largest ecological footprint per capita in the world. This meant that on average, each person in the UAE used more resources than people in any other country. The UAE continues to rank highly on comparable lists.

UAE Says Lessons Were Learned

The Masdar City project arose from this fear of becoming tarnished before being scaled back.

“We had access to lessons learned that no one else had because we did it and invested money,” al-Jaber told The Associated Press in 2010. “We must learn, change, adapt, and progress. We can’t be too strict.”

The UAE then transformed Masdar City into a campus that today houses the United Nations International Renewable Energy Agency and the enterprise itself, which is investing in renewables both at home and abroad. In 2016, before leaving office as America’s vice president, Joe Biden visited Masdar City.

Analysts say that the Emirates is trying to make as much money as possible before the world moves toward renewable energy. The UAE has committed to be carbon neutral by 2050, a challenging aim to analyze and one that authorities still need to clearly define how they’ll achieve.

The UAE “has made no bones about being a significant oil and gas producer, and presumably, he is extremely well linked to the country’s leadership,” according to Alden Meyer of the environmental think group E3G. “I hope (al-Jaber) has strong diplomatic and negotiation abilities and the capacity to reach consensus and compromise.”

COP28 will be hosted at Dubai’s Expo City from November 30 to December 12.

SOURCE – (AP)