UAE names oil chief Al Jaber as COP28 climate president
THE United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday (Jan 12) named Sultan Al Jaber, head of its national oil company, as president of the COP28 climate summit that will be held in Dubai later this year.
He is also the country’s special envoy on climate change, and plays a key role in its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. The UAE was the first nation in the oil- and gas-rich Persian Gulf to set such a target.
The COP28, which stands for the 28th session of the United Nations’ Conference of the Parties, will take place from Nov 30 to Dec 12. The president of the summit is crucial in setting the agenda and forging a consensus among the participating nations.
The UAE and its neighbour Saudi Arabia have argued that oil-producing companies and states should be given a bigger say in global climate talks. They have also blamed the surge in fossil-fuel prices over the past two years partly on western nations discouraging investments in new projects.
The UAE will “take an inclusive approach that engages all stakeholders from the public and private sectors”, Al Jaber said.
“The UAE is well-positioned to build bridges, foster consensus and bring the world together in one shared mission to keep ‘1.5 deg C’ alive,” he added, referring to the ambition of capping global warming by that amount.
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Many concerned with climate policies may find his appointment controversial due to his role as chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. It pumps almost all the crude in the UAE, which produces about 3.2 million barrels a day.
He will remain chief executive of the company, said people familiar with the matter.
He is also chairman of the UAE’s biggest renewable-energy company, Masdar. The Abu Dhabi-based firm can produce 20 gigawatts of clean power, and plans to invest billions of dollars over the next decade in increasing its capacity to 100 gigawatts globally. That is about double the renewable energy that the UK is able to produce today.
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The announcement of the appointment was made by the UAE’s ruler, Mohammed bin Zayed. Egypt hosted last year’s COP27 summit and made its foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, president. BLOOMBERG
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