The United Arab Emirates has come under fire after authorities appointed oil chief Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who is currently the chief executive officer of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, to lead COP28 talks regarding global climate.
Al Jaber is also the minister for industry and advanced technology for the United Arab Emirates. However, campaigners have called for him to resign from his oil company as president, arguing that it is an apparent conflict of interest.
Oil Chief as COP President
They added that someone involved in the oil industry might not push countries to rapidly reduce their production and consumption of fossil fuels. Scientists said the diminished resource use is critical to avoid dangerous climate change worldwide.
Many consider running the global climate talks process difficult due to needing to watch every word and action for months before and especially during the conference. This is because the president is under immense scrutiny, for they have more authority in the talks, as per BBC.
The COP28 talks are already being viewed as controversial because the hosts, the UAE, are among the biggest oil and gas producers worldwide. Al Jaber's appointment as head of the talks is expected to raise concerns that the global climate talks process is facing significant influence from fossil fuel interests.
The last climate talks, the COP27 gathering, was held in Egypt and was described by some who attended it as a "glorified fossil fuel trade show." Several analyses of those who registered for the event showed a significant increase in those connected to the oil and gas industry compared to meetings that were held before.
The large delegation from the UAE at the conference held in Sharm el-Sheikh included roughly 70 people who had close ties to fossil fuels. In the last decade, Al Jaber has become the face of the UAE's energy industry and has become the first serving oil executive appointed as COP president.
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The Threat of Climate Change
On top of his positions in the energy industry and politics, Al Jaber is also chairman of Masdar, a government-owned renewable energy company that was set up with his assistance. Campaigners worry about his appointment as COP president despite his warning of the threat of climate change.
Al Jaber's office said he would play a pivotal role in intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus at the conference. The conference is scheduled to be held from November 30 to December 12 of this year.
The oil chief once led an ambitious project to have a $22 billion "carbon-neutral" city located on Abu Dhabi's outskirts. It was an effort that was later pared back after the global financial crisis that affected the UAE in 2008.
A Mideast analyst for a risk-intelligence firm called the RANE Network, Ryan Bohl, said that Al Jaber has the credentials and background to lean into ongoing trends. They added that the oil chief being part of the energy industry will be a manageable risk for him, said NPR.
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