U.S. climate envoy, John Kerry has been urged by lawmakers to use his influence to prevail on the government of the United Arab Emirates to withdraw its appointment of the head of its state oil company as president of the COP28 climate summit it will host this year.
The appointment of Al-Jaber has been met with criticism over the fear of having a repeat of what happened in Egypt where campaigners and some delegates said fossil fuel producers had watered down emission reduction ambitions and benefited from sympathetic treatment from Egypt, a natural gas exporter and frequent recipient of Gulf funds.
Led by California Congressman Jared Huffman, the 27 Democratic members of Congress in a letter to Kerry urged him to persuade the oil-rich country to withdraw the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber, head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, who is charged with shepherding the next round of climate negotiations.
Al-Jaber’s appointment jeopardizes the climate talks which are already negatively influenced by the presence of fossil fuel lobbyists, the lawmakers said.
“It risks undermining the very essence of what is trying to be accomplished,” they said. “Furthermore, as some of us have urged future COPs should require any participating company to submit an audited corporate political influencing statement that discloses climate-related lobbying, campaign contributions, and funding of trade associations and organizations active on energy and climate,”.
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Kerry has already congratulated the UAE on the selection of Al-Jaber as president of the conference. In a recent interview, he said that having an oil state host the COP is a positive move, saying “it’s so important that you have an oil and gas producing nation step up and say we understand the challenge of the climate crisis.”
As the conference’s president, Al-Jaber will help shape the conference’s agenda and intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus, his office said in a statement.
Story was adapted from Reuters.
