As of: 01/12/2023 4:53 p.m
The UN climate conference COP28 will be held in the United Arab Emirates from November. According to the will of the host, the head of the state oil company should lead the summit. Environmentalists criticize the personnel.
At the next UN climate conference in Dubai, representatives from all over the world want to discuss how global warming can be slowed down. Now the host United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced who will be president of the COP28 summit: the head of the national oil company ADNOC, Sultan Ahmed al Dschaber.
He is considered a confidant of President Sheikh Mohammed bin Sajid Al Nahjan and is also the Emirates Minister of Industry and their special envoy for climate change. Al Daschaber has more than two decades of experience as CEO and in senior government positions, writes the state news agency WAM.
“Crucial decade in the fight for climate”
“This will be a pivotal year in a pivotal decade in the fight for climate,” Al Dschaber said of his appointment. “We will bring a pragmatic, realistic and solution-oriented approach that enables transformative progress for climate and low-carbon economic growth,” he promised in a government statement.
He is “firmly convinced that climate protection today represents an immense economic opportunity for investments in sustainable growth,” said al-Dschaber. Funding is key to enabling climate action, al Dschaber added.
Oil business and renewable energy experience
In the past, the technocrat not only gained experience in the oil business, but also in the field of renewable energies. He once led an initiative to build a car-free, “carbon-neutral” city on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. The ambitious project was ultimately scaled back when the Emirates were hit particularly hard by the global financial crisis from 2008.
Today, however, Al Jaber still serves as chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company that grew out of the green venture and is now active in more than 40 countries. The Emirates are among the ten largest oil producers in the world. The world climate conference COP28 will open there on November 30 in the metropolis of Dubai. Around 70,000 participants are expected.
Environmentalists see progress in danger
According to observers, the appointment of Al-Dschaber as President of the climate conference in Dubai shows the balancing act that the oil-producing Emirates have to perform with regard to the expectations of the meeting. The United Nations are hoping for impetus to limit carbon dioxide emissions, although CO2 is released through oil production in Abu Dhabi.
Environmentalists have criticized the oil company’s appointment, warning that it could slow progress in the fight against global warming. The big oil companies finally have a hand in the climate negotiations under the umbrella of the UN, tweeted the climate change professor at University College London, Mark Maslin.
Agreement on climate fund
The UN climate conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, ended in November 2022 after tough struggles. Their most important success was setting the course for a fund to compensate for climate-related damage, as set out in the final declaration. However, little progress has been made in the urgently needed reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the environmental organization Global Witness and the Corporate Europe Observatory, more than 600 lobbyists for oil, gas and coal were registered at the meeting in Egypt. The Emirates registered the largest number of participants at the COP27 with more than 1000 delegates. Global Witness classified 70 of them as oil lobbyists.