The CEO of the Emirati oil company will be the president of COP28

An ecological tanker, the paradox of COP28. The chairman of the UN climate conference scheduled for this year in the United Arab Emirates is none other than the CEO of the oil company of the small country of the Arabian Peninsula Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber.

Emirati Minister of Industry, boss of the oil giant ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) and special envoy for climate change, this Emirati will be the first CEO to chair a COP, according to a press release published by the official news agency WAM . “We will bring a pragmatic, realistic and solution-oriented approach,” promised Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, quoted in the press release. An appointment that did not fail to arouse strong reactions from environmental activists.

“A scandalous conflict of interest”

If the Emirati minister has led the national oil company since 2016 but also Masdar, the Emirati renewable energy company, his double hat has earned him many criticisms from environmental activists.

“The appointment of Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber as President of COP28, while he holds the position of CEO of the national oil company of Abu Dhabi constitutes a scandalous conflict of interest”, reacted Harjeet Singh, of the organization Climate Action Network International, by exposing the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists.

For ActionAid’s Teresa Anderson, ‘it goes beyond putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop’.

The Emirates sent the largest contingent of industry lobbyists to COP27 in November in Egypt. This edition allowed the adoption of a resolution on the compensation of the poorest countries for the damage caused by climate change.

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But it has failed to advance the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to maintain the objective of limiting global warming. And the issue of less use of fossil fuels was barely mentioned in the texts. COP28 will be held in Dubai in November and December.

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