UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: The CEO of the country’s national oil corporation is most likely to be handed the key position as the United Arab Emirates begins its leadership of the international climate negotiations on Thursday.
The leader of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Business (Adnoc), the world’s twelfth-largest oil company by production, Sultan Al Jaber has served as the nation’s climate ambassador and expected to assume the crucial post of climate talks president.
In addition, he leads the Masdar corporation, which specializes in renewable energy, and serves as the UAE’s minister of industry and advanced technologies.
The Cop28 UN climate summit will take place from 6-17 November in Dubai. The summit will determine whether the world can move forward in addressing the climate catastrophe. Nations must perform a “global stocktake” this year to evaluate the status of climate action and the advancement of the 2015 Paris Agreement’s objectives.
Even though some nations have submitted national plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are consistent with the Paris Agreement’s ambitious goal of keeping global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels, many of the world’s largest emitters have not, endangering the climate goals.
One of the duties of the presidency will be to hold such obstinate regimes accountable. However, many experts are concerned that the UAE, a major oil producer with close relations to other producers like Saudi Arabia, may be unwilling to do so.
Numerous oil and gas lobbyists from the UAE attended Cop27, which was held in Egypt last November. Gulf governments with significant oil and gas interests were expected to be among the opponents of harsher language on the phase-out of fossil fuels.
UAE has made an effort to portray itself as an oil producer that is modernizing, increasing the effectiveness of its production processes, and investing in renewable energy.
However, many doubt that even a cutting-edge oil economy can advocate for the quick phase-out of fossil fuels required to adhere to the increasingly flimsy 1.5C objective.
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