JPMorgan’s Umuna says carping over UAE climate host should stop

LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) – Critics should stop being “bystanders” to the UAE’s hosting of the COP28 climate talks and instead give the oil producer a chance to show it can make a difference in energy, a senior JPMorgan source said. Take the lead in decarbonizing the industry. (JPM.N) bankers told Reuters.

The UAE’s incoming COP28 chairman, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, who also runs the UAE’s state-owned oil major, has been criticized by climate activists for taking a soft stance on fossil fuels ahead of the COP28 meeting. United Nations summit November starts.

In May, more than 100 members of Congress and the European Parliament urged the U.S. president and the head of the European Commission to urge the UAE to remove al-Jabir from the COP, saying his dual stance could derail negotiations.

Critics of rich countries should “give the president a chance,” said Chuka Umunna, head of ESG (environmental, social and governance) and green economy investment banking at JPMorgan in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

“It looks really bad. Yes, the UAE is an oil producer, but Egypt and the UK are oil producers, and people aren’t saying that should stop them from hosting [the last two COP summits]. In fact, the United States, the world’s largest oil producer, is home to the United Nations headquarters,” he told Reuters in an interview.

Umuna, a former politician of the British opposition Labor Party, said he had met with the British opposition Labor Party. uae presidency The team was impressed.

“They (the UAE) probably understand the oil and gas industry better than many other countries, and they know how to decarbonize these industries. Of course, this means that they play a very important role in the world, finding solutions to our biggest challenges, ’ he added.

JPMorgan Chase was the largest financier of the fossil fuel industry between 2016 and 2022, providing a total of $434 billion, but slipped to $100 billion by 2022, according to the Banks Against Climate Chaos report compiled by a group of NGOs. second.

Earth-warming emissions from burning fossil fuels continue to rise, scientists have warned, although they will need to fall sharply if the world has any chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average.

JPMorgan, the largest U.S. bank by assets, has pledged to provide or help other institutions raise $1 trillion for green initiatives by 2030, and has set a goal to reduce emissions associated with lending to oil and gas clients.

Umunna noted that around 70% of market venture capital and private equity climate investment since 2021 has gone into low-carbon energy and transport-related technologies, calling it a “low-hanging fruit”.

Going forward, more money will start flowing to areas such as plastics, steel and food as policymakers focus on other drivers of fossil fuel demand, he said. “For other green economy verticals, their time is coming,” he said.

Reporting by Tommy Reggioli Wilkes and Simon Jessop; Editing by Christina Finch

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