Should an oil executive oversee climate talks? The UAE thinks so.
A decision by the United Arab Emirates to select the head of its national oil company, one of the world’s largest, to oversee United Nations climate talks in Dubai this year has drawn ire from environmental groups across the world.
But although the appointment of Sultan Al Jaber to lead the COP28 environmental gathering may seem like a contradiction, the move reflects the complex balancing act the UAE is trying to pull off as the oil exporter prepares for a renewable future.
Al Jaber is CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil, which produces more than 3 million barrels of crude oil a day and is investing so it can produce much more. But he is also the country’s special envoy for climate change and chair of Masdar, a state-owned renewable-energy company, which has pledged to build the world’s first carbon-neutral and zero-waste city.
Al Jaber’s appointment, announced Thursday, was welcomed by the US climate envoy, John Kerry, who cited his experience as a diplomat and business leader, as well as his role at Masdar.
“This unique combination will help bring all of the necessary stakeholders to the table to move faster and at scale,” Kerry said on Twitter.
Al Jaber, 49, has for more than a decade been at the front of the UAE’s efforts to build a more sustainable future even as it continues to produce oil. In 2021, it became the first Persian Gulf country to declare a net-zero carbon emissions goal – joining a growing list of countries around the world who have made long-term climate pledges. (Their success at meeting those goals has so far been hard to evaluate.)
“Sultan Al Jaber is far from being your average oil executive,” said Karim Elgendy, a fellow on Middle East environmental issues at Chatham House, a London-based think tank. “He has been spearheading the UAE’s climate action well before and during his tenure as the head of Abu Dhabi’s national oil company.”
Al Jaber’s appointment as COP28 president is “representative of the UAE’s approach to climate action,” he said, citing its pledges to reduce its own economy’s use of oil while at the same time doubling down on its “moral right to export every molecule of fossil fuel.”
“It sees no contradiction between the two,” Elgendy said. NYT
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