Oil industry representative chairs next UN climate conference in Dubai

A representative of the oil industry will chair the next UN climate conference. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) appointed the head of the national oil company ADNOC, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, as President of this year’s COP28 conference in Dubai. His country will bring an “approach that enables transformative progress for the climate and low-carbon economic growth,” said al-Dschaber. The conference takes place in November and December.

First company boss as conference leader

According to the state news agency WAM, al-Dschaber is the first company boss to hold this post. Al-Dschaber stated that he was “firmly convinced that climate protection today represents a huge economic opportunity for investments in sustainable growth”. Funding is key to enabling climate action, added al-Dschaber, who is also the emirate’s industry minister and special envoy on climate change. He has already taken part in more than ten UN climate conferences.

The 49-year-old is also CEO of the state-funded investment company Masdar, which according to state media in the Emirates has financed renewable energy projects in more than 40 countries around the world since it was founded in 2006. In 2009, then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon appointed him to the Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. Al-Dschaber is “a pioneer in climate protection in the United Arab Emirates,” said climate expert Karim Elgendy from the British think tank Chatham House.

The UN climate conference COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, ended in November 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 environmental organizations, more than 600 lobbyists for oil, gas and coal were registered at the conference. The Emirates had sent 70 oil lobbyists to Sharm el-Sheikh alone.

Environmentalists sharply criticized al-Dschaber’s appointment as COP president. Harjeet Singh, head of global policy strategy at Climate Action Network International (CAN), spoke of an “enormous conflict of interest” over al-Dschaber’s role in the oil industry. Theresa Anderson, climate justice officer at NGO ActionAid, said al-Dschaber’s appointment was “worse than turning the goat into a gardener.” Greenpeace International’s Tracy Carty said the fossil fuel industry “must have no place in international climate negotiations”.

Emirates rely on CO2 capture and storage technology

According to Elgendy, however, al-Dschaber’s appointment fits in with the climate policy strategy of the United Arab Emirates. The Emirates – whose economic rise has been closely linked to the production and export of oil and gas since the 1970s – are expressly in favor of including the management level of the oil industry in climate negotiations. The Gulf monarchy argues that crude oil will remain indispensable to the global economy for the foreseeable future – and that the income from its sale would also be needed to invest in renewable energies. The Emirates are therefore supporting, among other things, the technology of CO2 capture and storage (CCS), in which greenhouse gas is filtered out of the air during combustion and then stored in the ground.

The Emirates themselves are particularly badly affected by climate change: temperatures here in summer are already reaching almost 50 degrees Celsius. According to a study published in 2021, parts of the Gulf region could become so hot that they become uninhabitable for humans by the end of the century.

sti/fab (afp, dpa)