The CEO of a national oil company as the president of COP28, the next annual global climate summit. The United Arab Emirates is a nation whose wealth depends on oil. That nation will host the next s UN climate negotiations. The president of COP28 will be the CEO of its national oil company.
The fox is watching the henhouse!
See these articles:
https://www.desmog.com/2023/01/12/uae-adnoc-cop28-presidency-fossil-fuel-ceo/
https://www.ecowatch.com/cop28-oil-executive-climate-crisis.html
A savvy organization — www.priceofoil.org — sent this information out on January 12, 2023:
This morning, the United Arab Emirates announced that Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), will be the new President of the upcoming COP28 climate talks in Dubai.
With this decision, it appears likely that COP28 will be dominated by vested fossil fuel interests determined to undermine climate action, while NGO access and public participation continues to be limited. In recent years, COPs have been attended by a greater and greater number of fossil fuel industry lobbyists, rising more than 25% this past year.
We don’t have time to waste taking action on climate, yet here we are with an actual oil executive running the most important international climate talks of the year. It’s absolutely unconscionable and enraging.
Click here to share the news via Twitter – or share it directly with friends and family. This is breaking news, so we’ll be in touch with more ways to take action soon. We won’t let this go by without a fight.
Additionally, our research reveals that al-Jaber’s oil company is expected to push forward the second-largest expansion of oil production of any company in the world between 2023 and 2025, as the UAE is poised to become the third largest expander of oil and gas production.
Our Global Policy Manager, Romain Ioualalen put it succinctly in a press release this morning: “This is a truly breathtaking conflict of interest and is tantamount to putting the head of a tobacco company in charge of negotiating an anti-smoking treaty. ADNOC will surely tout its investments in renewable energy but the reality is that the climate talks will be run by the CEO of a company betting on climate failure. These are the worst possible credentials for an upcoming COP President.”
Other academics and activists worldwide have expressed similar outrage:
We will keep you updated as this story develops. Until then, please amplify this tweet and share the news on social media, over email, or in any fashion you prefer. You can read and share our reactions to this decision in our press release, blog, and via the news coverage here in Common Dreams.