The United Arabs Emirates climate envoy and designated COP28 president, Sultan al-Jaber has said that his country will perform its duty as host of the COP28 summit scheduled to hold this year with humility, responsibility and urgency.
“It is not a conflict of interest but in our common interest to have the energy industry working alongside everyone on the solutions the world needs,”al-Jaber was quoted as saying at the India Energy Week conference. “The UAE COP presidency is listening and ready to engage,”.
Jaber’s appointment to lead the climate summit this year fuelled activists’ worries that big industry was hijacking the world’s response to the global warming crisis. Calls have also been made for him to either be changed or relinquish the post for a more credible person as the UAE, a major OPEC oil exporter, will be the second Arab state to host the climate conference after Egypt in 2022 and there are concerns certain matters will not be given prominence as they should.
Meanwhile, the UAE and other Gulf energy producers have called for a real energy transition in which hydrocarbons would keep a role in energy security while making commitments to decarbonisation.
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“We cannot unplug the current energy system before we have built the new one,” said Jaber, who was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi renewable energy firm Masdar before becoming ADNOC chief. “We must minimise their carbon footprint, only invest in the least carbon-intensive barrels and continue to reduce their intensity,”.
When it comes to the energy transition, Jaber said that developing nations had not seen enough justice and pointed to capital needed to fully operationalize the loss and damage fund approved in COP27.
Although the deal to create the fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at the Egypt summit last year, climate activists have since complained that the fund remains empty of cash.
The Nov. 20-Dec. 12 COP28 will be the first global stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.
On Tuesday, Jaber said that eliminating energy poverty was essential alongside keeping the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius alive.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
