“The UAE approaches COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition,” Al Jaber said in a statement confirming his appointment as the next COP28 president.
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The United Arab Emirates announced on Thursday that the head of state oil giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world's largest oil companies, will lead COP28 climate change negotiations in Dubai later this year.
The nomination of Sultan Al Jaber as a candidate for COP28 Presidency sparked a fierce backlash from climate change activists and civil society groups. Many called on the oil chief to relinquish his role as ADNOC CEO, saying this was a clear conflict of interest with his position at COP28.
The office of Al Jaber, who is also the UAE's Minister of Industry and Technology and the country's special envoy for climate change, said he would play a central role in intergovernmental negotiations to reach an agreement at the conference.
The UAE, the third-largest producer in the OPEC oil alliance, will host UN-mediated climate change talks from November 30 to December 12.
This appointment does more than just leave the fox in charge of the chicken coop.
Teresa Anderson
ActionAid’s Global Climate Justice Leader
“The UAE approaches COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition,” Al Jaber said in a statement confirming his appointment.
“Pragmatism and constructive dialogue must be at the forefront of our progress,” he added.
Mr Al Jaber's office notes that the minister has played an “active participating role” in more than 10 COP summits and has 20 years of business and leadership experience across government, climate policy, and renewables and energy sectors. He said that his experience has been put to good use in his role.
This designation sparked a wave of international criticism.
“This appointment is about more than just putting a fox in charge of the chicken coop,” said Teresa Anderson, global lead for climate justice at development charity ActionAid.
“The United Nations Climate Summit is supposed to be a forum for the world to hold polluters accountable, and that responsibility is increasing.” [it’s] Taken over by people with conflicting interests. “As with last year's summit, we are increasingly seeing fossil fuel stakeholders take control of the process and shape it to meet their own needs,” Anderson said.
Tasneem Essop, president of the Climate Action Network, which includes more than 1,500 civil society organizations, said Al Jaber “cannot preside over a process tasked with addressing the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest.” Stated.
In comments quoted by the Guardian, Essop added that al-Jaber's appointment “is tantamount to total control of the UN climate change negotiations by national oil companies and their associated fossil fuel lobbyists.”
Bill McGuire, emeritus professor of geophysics and climate hazards at University College London, said on Twitter that the COP “was always a circus. Now it's a complete joke.”
“We need separate permanent institutions that work all year round, focusing on energy, transport, deforestation, loss and damage, etc.,” he added. “It's not a bloated festival of photo ops of world leaders and oil executives.”
Asked to respond to the criticism, a spokesperson for the UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change told CNBC that Al Jaber's experience “brings together both the public and private sectors to bring practical solutions to achieve goals. We are in a unique position to be able to do so.” The goals and aspirations of the Paris Climate Agreement. ”
It added: “The UAE is committed to an inclusive COP process, with the COP President acting as the global convener. The UAE COP Presidency will work with all stakeholders to ensure an open, transparent and accountable process. We are committed to fulfilling our mission,” he added.
A spokesperson for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change could not be reached for comment.
At the COP27 conference held in Egypt last November, the number of attendees from major oil and gas companies, the world's biggest polluters, soared. At the time, it was described as a “perverse joke” emblematic of the fossil fuel industry's ability to influence litigation.
The combustion of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas is a major cause of the climate emergency.
The upcoming COP28 summit will be the first global inventory since the landmark Paris Agreement. The 2015 agreement aims to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Beyond this critical temperature limit, small changes are likely to cause dramatic changes in Earth's entire life support system.
The UAE was the first Middle Eastern country to ratify the Paris Agreement, pledging to achieve net-zero emissions by mid-century.
