2023-08-02 01:20:01
The United Arab Emirates, host country of the next UN Climate Summit (COP28), has established a list of ‘sensitive’ issues, reports the daily The Guardianwhich has had access to a document that establishes “strategic messages” approved by the Government in response to requests from the media on matters ranging from the growing production of oil and gas in the country to the trafficking of people.
On the other hand, the organizers of the summit have assured this Tuesday in Cairo that they plan to guarantee that the activists have enough space for peaceful protests. Like previous host Egypt, the Emirates has come under heavy criticism for its human rights record. According to human rights activists, dozens of people remain unjustly imprisoned in the Gulf state.
Human rights group Amnesty International has said it is not possible for the UAE to implement ambitious targets in the fight against climate change due to existing laws on freedom of expression.
Many activists, such as blogger Ahmed Mansur, are unjustly imprisoned, according to human rights activists. There are also reports of extensive surveillance, on the Internet, on mobile phones or computers, as well as through facial recognition technology in public spaces.
“International Standards for Human Rights”
But the elected president of COP28, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, and the UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, have assured that they want to guarantee “international standards for human rights” at the Dubai conference and that COP28 should be ” more inclusive than any previous UN climate conference.
“We are committed to defending the rights of all participants and ensuring that all points of view and their contributions to the climate challenge are heard,” they stressed.
COP28, which hosts representatives from around 200 countries, begins on November 30. At the UN conference, delegates will discuss whether the internationally agreed limit of 1.5 degrees for the increase in global warming remains realistic and how the worst consequences of the climate change crisis can be avoided.
Cop28 UAE key messages and narrative points
At the same time, the document to which you have had access The Guardian begins with three pages of Cop28 UAE key messages and narrative pointswhich do not contain references to fossil fuels, oil or gas, but do mention renewable energy and hydrogen.
The only mention of fossil fuels in the lengthy document is in a section titled UAE as a hydrocarbon economy (fossil fuel lobby). The answer is that “the UAE is helping to build the energy system of tomorrow while reducing the carbon intensity of oil and gas.”
The document also lists responses to a number of non-climate issues, including money laundering, war crimes in Yemen, political prisoners, surveillance and espionage, the LGBTQIA+ community, freedom of expression, women’s rights, and human trafficking. .
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