Abu Dhabi: UAE Special Envoy for Climate Change Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has been appointed President-elect of the UAE by COP28. The head of the UAE’s oil giant, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, is chairing this year’s COP28 climate summit, fueling environmental activists’ concerns that big business is hijacking the global response to environmental challenges.
Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber is also the Minister of Industry and Technology of the UAE. He is also currently the Special Envoy for Climate Change, having served in the post from 2010 to 2016. His office said in a statement that the decision would help shape the conference’s agenda and government-level discussions to build consensus.
At the same time, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric noted that the UAE COP president was chosen without the involvement of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres or the Secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Dujarric said they were losing the fight to prevent the worst impact of the climate crisis by taking action. The Secretary-General emphasized that there is no other way to avoid climate catastrophe without ending our addiction to fossil fuels like petrol and coal, which are biologically formed underground.
The UAE, an OPEC oil exporter, is the second Arab country to host the climate conference after Egypt in 2022.
Environmentalists and some representatives have criticized COP 27, saying biofuel producers watered down efforts to cut emissions and benefited from sympathetic intervention by Egypt, a natural gas exporter and regular recipient of Gulf contributions.
But the Egyptian presidency denied the allegation.
Global Witness, an organization that works to protect the environment and human rights and secure the future of the Earth, described Sultan’s appointment as a “severe blow” to the world’s elimination of biofuels.
Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s global lead for climate justice, said in a statement that, as at last year’s summit, they see the potential for biofuel interests to take control of the process and shape it to meet their own needs.
More than 600 biofuel supporters attended the climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
Lisa Schipper, an environmental geographer who served as lead author of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, said putting an oil CEO in charge of negotiating for COP 28 was clearly a conflict of interest for the organization.
A ‘realistic’ transition from hydrocarbons
As the founding CEO of Masdar, an Abu Dhabi renewable energy firm in which Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) owns a 24 percent stake, Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber has green credentials, having overseen the mandate to embrace renewable energies in the UAE.
He oversees the acceleration of ADNOC’s low-carbon growth strategy, which was approved late last year. He has also called for a ‘realistic’ transition in which hydrocarbons retain a role in energy security while the UAE and other Gulf producers commit to decarbonisation.
After last year’s Russian invasion of Ukraine and Europe’s energy crisis, pressure on governments and companies to leave oil and gas on the ocean floor has eased.
The UAE, the first country in the Gulf to ratify the Paris Agreement, has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to as close to zero as possible by 2050. The COP28 conference from November 30 to December 12 will be the first time since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015 to take stock of the current situation at the global level.
The Sultan, who said in a statement that he will be the first CEO to serve as Coop president, said the UAE would bring a “practical, realistic and solutions-oriented approach”. He added that they will adopt an inclusive approach to all stakeholders.
EU climate policy chief Franz Timmermans said he would meet with Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber this week. He tweeted that as President-elect, the UAE has a critical role to play in shaping the global response to the climate crisis and that they must step up.
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