COP28: CEO of UAE national oil company named president
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber during the opening ceremony of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, November 11, 2019. AP - Kamran Jebreili
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The CEO of the United Arab Emirates oil company, this year's host country of the UN climate conference, will chair COP28, promising a "
pragmatic
" approach to tackling global warming.
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The Emirati Minister of Industry, head of the oil giant ADNOC and special envoy for climate change, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, is the “
president designate for the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28)
”, indicates this Thursday January 12 a press release
from the official WAM news agency.
"
We will bring a pragmatic, realistic and solution-oriented approach
," Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber said in the statement.
The first CEO to chair a COP, Sultan al-Jaber has led the national oil company since 2016 but also Masdar, the Emirati renewable energy company.
After two tenures as the Special Envoy for Climate Change, HE Dr. Sultan Al Jaber will serve as the COP28 President-Designate.
➡️ HE Razan Al Mubarak, UN Climate Change High Level Champion
➡️ HE Shamma Al Mazrui, Youth Climate Championhttps://t.co/niER5Y7SBZ #COP28UAE pic.twitter.com/QahDgUfhjb
— Office Of The UAE Special Envoy For Climate Change (@uaeclimateenvoy) January 12, 2023
A country far from being a good student in terms of climate protection
The United Arab Emirates is among the five largest emitters of CO2 per capita on the planet, just after neighboring Qatar.
If this small state tries to shed its image of a gigantic polluter by claiming, for example, to aim for carbon neutrality by 2050, it still depends largely on the production of oil and gas.
“
Renewable energies are developing rapidly.
But gas and oil remain the largest energies in the energy mix and will be for decades.
The future is coming, but it's not here yet.
We must progress, with pragmatism.
We cannot simply unplug today's system
, ”he said at the opening of the annual Apidec oil conference in 2021.
► Also to listen: Are COPs useful?
“
Climate action is a huge economic opportunity for investing in sustainable growth.
Funding is key
,” Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber said in a statement on January 12.
The last world climate conference, organized in November in Egypt, was marked by the adoption of a resolution on compensating the poorest countries for the damage caused by climate change.
But this COP27 failed to advance the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to maintain the objective of limiting global warming.
The next edition will be held in Dubai in November and December.
It is now official.
Sultan Al Jaber, CEO of an oil company in Abu Dhabi, has just been appointed President of COP28 by the United Arab Emirates.
When the organizer is a lobbyist himself, I don't see what could go wrong 🤷https://t.co/WC4H0bi7SY
— Wolf Espargiliere (@L_Espargiliere) January 12, 2023
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