A trove of leaked documents suggests that the United Arab Emirates planned to use the COP28 Climate Summit to push for new oil and gas deals with foreign governments.
The documents were first published by the UK-registered Centre for Climate Reporting and appeared to be briefing notes for Sultan Al Jaber. He would be presiding over the UN climate negotiations in Dubai.
UAE's Plans To Push for Oil and Gas Deals
The documents were meant for meetings with foreign officials in the run-up to the COP28 summit. They were also found to be organized as country profiles, with each paper describing talking points for Al Jaber to raise during the discussions.
They also detail each country's climate progress in various key areas, including finance, decarbonizing food systems, and uptake of renewables, and identify how their ambitions could be raised.
However, among the points listed in the documents, there were also several suggestions to offer new oil and gas projects with the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Al Jaber leads the company and it did not reply to requests for comments regarding the leaked documents, as per CNN.
However, the firm previously said that any suggestion of using the COP28 climate summit to promote itself was "incorrect and is baseless." A spokesperson for the global summit said in an email that the leaked documents are inaccurate and were not used by COP28 in meetings.
The situation comes as the UAE has already been at the point of widespread criticism for appointing its top oil and gas chief to preside over the climate summit. An analysis from a fossil fuel watchdog noted that ADNOC plans to expand its oil and gas production as Al Jaber leads the event.
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On top of the leaked documents' talking points revolving around climate issues and promoting ADNOC, other suggestions sought to promote projects with the UAE's main renewables vehicle, Masdar, which Al Jaber also heads.
For example, briefing notes for Germany noted that Al Jaber stood ready to expand LNG supplies to the European nation. On the other hand, documents meant for China said that ADNOIC was willing to jointly evaluate international LNG opportunities, according to Politico.
Upcoming COP28 Climate Summit
The leaked documents also proposed telling oil-rich giants Saudi Arabia and Venezuela that there was no conflict between the sustainable development of any nation's natural resources and its commitment to climate change.
They also showed the UAE's hope to get off the Brazilian "tax haven" list to help facilitate new investments from Msadar. Additionally, the UAE is looking to consider a possible deal with China over liquefied natural gas projects.
The COP28 Climate Summit is the UN's upcoming round of global climate negotiations. The summit, which will last for two weeks, will be held in Dubai and include scores of world leaders and g government ministers from nearly 200 nations. Furthermore, roughly 70,000 delegates are expected to attend the event.
The summit is a pivotal opportunity to accelerate action to address the current climate crisis. It comes at a time when global temperatures are hitting record highs and extreme weather events are affecting millions worldwide, said CNBC.
