UN conference
Environmentalists: Oil manager should not lead climate conference
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, Emirati Minister of State and CEO of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Photo
© Kamran Jebreili/AP/dpa
Would it be okay if a tobacco lobbyist chaired a health convention? The UN climate conference in Dubai, which is to be chaired by an oil manager, faces a similar problem.
Before the Petersberg climate dialogue, environmentalists express their horror that the next world climate conference COP28 in Dubai will be chaired by the top manager of an oil company. The designated COP President Sultan Ahmed al-Dschaber, who will be hosting the climate dialogue in Berlin on Tuesday and Wednesday with Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, is the United Arab Emirates Minister of Industry and also the head of the state-owned oil company Adnoc.
Greenpeace is “deeply concerned” about this, said Managing Director Martin Kaiser of the German Press Agency in Berlin. He spoke of a dangerous precedent and an unprecedented conflict of interest. “It’s as if the Federal Environment Agency were headed by the head of VW.” The United Nations should put a stop to this. “To end the erosion of public trust in the UN, the Secretary-General must outlaw conflict-of-interest policies.”
Participants from around 40 countries are expected to attend the two-day climate dialogue of the federal government in Berlin. A speech by Al-Dschaber, who will chair the climate conference in Dubai in the first two weeks of December, is also planned. The COP President has an important role as a mediator for compromises between the almost 200 states.
Eight new oil rigs in half a year
The Emirates are among the ten largest oil producers in the world and, despite the climate crisis, want to further expand their climate-damaging oil and gas production. In the second half of 2022 alone, Adnoc put eight new oil rigs into operation, and net profit increased by more than 30 percent to around USD 800 million.
However, the International Energy Agency (IEA) is urgently calling for no more new oil and gas deposits to be developed with immediate effect in order to contain the climate crisis. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also warns that investments in new fossil deposits are not compatible with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
Brice Böhmer from Transparency International told the dpa that clear UN rules are needed to avoid such conflicts of interest. He pointed out that more than 600 oil and gas lobbyists were accredited at the last world climate conference in Egypt. Regarding Al-Dschaber’s appointment, he said his nomination would jeopardize the UN’s credibility. A boycott of the COP28 in Dubai does not make sense, however, because this would only increase corruption and undue influence. The non-governmental organization has been dedicated to fighting corruption worldwide for 30 years.
The Executive Director of the Climate Action Network (CAN), Tasneem Essop, reiterated her demand that Al-Dschaber resign as CEO – at least for the time when the Emirates host the climate conference. This creates at least a kind of “fire wall” between his roles. A COP President must act objectively and be free from interests of the fossil industry. UN climate diplomacy should have issued a set of rules “decades ago,” she said. The CAN network brings together more than 1,300 climate protection organizations in around 130 countries.