If you would decide one individual to attempt to resolve the worsening local weather disaster, who would you decide?
That individual must steer this 12 months’s United Nations COP local weather summit, in a 12 months “near certain” to be the most popular ever on file, and with time working out for the dramatic motion UN scientists say is required to cease local weather change hitting us laborious.
When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) introduced it had picked Sultan al Jaber to run this 12 months’s COP28 local weather talks, jaws dropped.
Because Mr al Jaber additionally occurs to be the boss of one of many world’s largest oil corporations, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
So, is his twin position “completely ridiculous,” within the phrases of Greta Thunberg, or, as others put it, a “unique” alternative?
When jaws dropped
When the oil chief was introduced as COP28 president in January, campaigners like 350.org likened it to “appointing the CEO of a cigarette company to oversee a conference on cancer cures”.
Immediately calls mounted for the UAE to decide on another person, or at the least have him resign as oil firm chief whereas he was COP president.
Meanwhile ADNOC was ploughing on with plans to virtually double its oil manufacturing capability from 2.7 million barrels of oil per day in 2021, to five million by 2027.
Those requires him to step down from ADNOC fell flat.
After all, he co-founded the state’s MASDAR renewables firm in 2006, which now has investments in over 40 international locations, together with these western funders have been reluctant to again.
And who else may have taken on the COP position?
“He has a track record of leadership in clean energy and industry in the UAE,” mentioned Lee Beck from Clean Air Task Force (CATF), which works with governments and companies within the area to assist shift to a cleaner power future.
Who is Sultan al Jaber?
Al Jaber was born in 1973 within the emirate Umm al Quwain.
He doesn’t belong to one among royal households that guidelines the nation, however has held plenty of excessive positions in Emirati society, together with cupboard minister roles since 2013.
The tall, media shy enterprise govt, who hardly ever offers interviews, was additionally “responsible for censorship of all media content in the country” when he served as chairman of the National Media Council (NMC) from 2015-2020, in response to Amnesty International.
A spokesperson for al Jaber’s COP28 crew mentioned the NMC “was abolished in June 2021, and as such is not relevant to media expression in the UAE today or Dr Sultan’s work”.
He has led the UAE’s local weather diplomacy since 2020, and earlier than that between 2010-2016.
‘Terrific selection’
“Terrific choice” gushed former US Secretary of State turned local weather envoy John Kerry about Dr Sultan, as did a lot of his counterparts.
And many see a logic to his appointment. As fossil fuels are the primary reason for local weather change, they must be concerned within the options.
Laurence Tubiana, key architect of the landmark Paris Agreement, this summer time mentioned Mr Jaber’s crew was “uniquely placed” to deliver the fossil gas business alongside on the swap to a clear power future.
The presence of fossil gas corporations and their lobbyists at COPs has lengthy been controversial. This 12 months they’re getting a fair higher position because the UAE brings them into the fold with its “game changing” plan.
“For many years, the COP process has been inputting the same actions and expecting different results. In Dubai, we are doing things differently. We are bringing everyone to the table because everyone is needed, and that includes the energy industry,” a COP28 spokesperson advised Sky News.
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Supporters additionally level to the UAE’s unimaginable enlargement of nuclear and photo voltaic. It has simply constructed an infinite four-reactor nuclear energy plant roughly on time and on finances – a feat that eludes many different international locations just like the UK.
“So there’s multiple reasons why the UAE is an important player,” mentioned Lee Beck from CATF.
At dwelling, the UAE plans to spend $54bn (£43bn) on rising renewable energy till 2030. But ADNOC has earmarked 3 times as a lot money $150bn (£119bn) to develop oil and gasoline capability in a shorter timeframe (by 2027).
And in August, Sky News revealed the UAE had missed its personal clear energy goal.
Is it truthful to single out the UAE?
This can also be not the primary time a fossil gas producer is internet hosting a COP local weather summit. Egypt has stacks of gasoline, and the UK is pumping declining quantities of oil and gasoline from the North Sea.
And the UAE is the sixth largest provider of refined oil merchandise – together with jet gas – to the UK. But then COP26 president, Alok Sharma, was not an oil boss however an MP used to public scrutiny.
“I’m sure [al Jaber] has done a ton of negotiations round boardrooms so hopefully that comes in use,” mentioned Tom Evans from E3G, a assume tank that intently follows COP negotiations.
But a COP summit is “not just a closed-door meeting”, he added. It comes with a “unique pressure” the place “the world’s eyes are looking at what he can deliver”.
Shift in rhetoric or caught purple handed?
But whereas the backlash in January was “pretty intense”, mentioned Mr Evans, since then Mr al Jaber’s crew have “stepped up the intensity of their work”.
After being criticised in May for urging the part out of “fossil fuel emissions”, in June he declared that the part down of all fossil fuels, not simply their emissions, was “inevitable”.
Focusing on emissions permits fossil fuels to proceed at scale, so long as these emissions are captured and saved – however this know-how continues to be extraordinarily costly and laborious to return by.
This language would be the centre of a row at COP28, with international locations arguing over whether or not to “phase out” or “phase down” – and over the know-how to seize emissions.
His new openness on that divisive fossil gas query even manged to steer Tasneem Essop, head of the Climate Action Network, which represents tons of of NGOs at COP and had led requires him to resign as ADNOC CEO.
“His rhetoric started shifting,” mentioned Ms Essop. “So he has been listening, he has been engaging.”
He additional gained favour in October when he helped rescue faltering talks on a fund for susceptible nations to deal with local weather change – telling international locations that billions of lives trusted getting a deal.
But the hard-won belief was examined to its limits when bombshell allegations yesterday accused him of utilizing the COP to strike new oil and gasoline offers. The COP28 crew known as the alleged leaked paperwork, reported by the Centre for Climate Reporting “unverified”.
“Caught red handed,” blasted Christiana Figueres, former head of the United Nations physique that runs COP (UNFCCC) on X, previously referred to as Twitter. “The Cop presidency has no other option but to now unequivocally step up the transparency… [it] will be under scrutiny like no other before.”
Tom Evans from E3G mentioned the UAE’s presidency has “improved, but has a long way to go still”.
Yet al Jaber’s crew insists he “knows what the industry can do, and he can hold it to account like no other president in the history of COP”. And he has used his position to enroll 20 oil and gasoline corporations to a brand new voluntary local weather pledge, with extra particulars to return later within the week.
But he’ll finally largely be judged on the language he manages 197 odd international locations to conform to within the ultimate pact after two weeks of fraught negotiations.
Mr Evans mentioned: “When the gavel falls, it will be citizens around the world who will be saying whether that’s good enough.”
Source: information.sky.com”