Sultan al-Jaber, the head of state oil giant ADNOC, would act as president of the COP28 climate conference it is hosting this year, the United Arab Emirates has announced.
Jaber who is also UAE’s minister of industry and technology and its climate envoy will not only help develop the COP28 agenda but also play a central role in intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus, his office said in a statement.
As founding CEO of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy firm Masdar, in which ADNOC has a 24% stake, Jaber has green credentials having overseen its mandate to adopt renewables in the UAE and he is also overseeing an acceleration of ADNOC’s low-carbon growth strategy approved late last year.
The UAE will be the second Arab state to host the climate conference after Egypt hosted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in 2022.
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The Cop28 UN climate summit, which will take place on 30 November in Dubai, will be a crucial conference, determining whether the world can get on track to tackle the climate crisis. This year, nations must conduct a “global stocktake” assessing the current state of climate action and progress on fulfilling the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.
The UAE and other Gulf energy producers have called for a real energy transition in which hydrocarbons would continue playing a role to ensure energy security while making commitments to decarbonisation.
Demands from environmental groups and scientists that governments and companies leave oil and gas in the ground have gained less traction since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and Europe’s scramble for energy security.
The UAE, the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, has committed to reaching net zero emissions by 2050.
Jaber, who according to the statement, would be the first CEO to serve as COP president, said the UAE would bring “a pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach” to the conference.
“We will take an inclusive approach that engages all stakeholders.”
Story was adapted from Reuters.
