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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates on Thursday named a seasoned technocrat who both leads Abu Dhabi’s state-run oil company and oversees its renewable energy efforts as the head of the upcoming U.N. climate talks in Dubai. Chairman, stressed the balancing act for the future of this crude oil producer.
Authorities nominate Sultan al-Jabir, trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al NahyanWho serves as CEO of ADNOC. The company pumps about 4 million barrels per day of crude oil and hopes to expand to 5 million barrels per day.
Those revenues fuel the ambitions of the coalition of seven emirates in the Arabian Peninsula — and the production of more heat-trapping carbon dioxide that U.N. negotiations hope to limit.
But al-Jaber also headed a once-ambitious project with $22 billion in funding “Carbon Neutral” Cities On the outskirts of Abu Dhabi, the effort was later scaled back after the global financial crisis hit the UAE hard in 2008. Even today, he remains chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company that grew out of the project.
“Sultan al-Jaber has the qualifications and the background to understand the trends that have happened,” said Ryan Bohl, a Middle East analyst at a risk intelligence firm called RANE Network. There would be that much risk.”
Al Jaber, who has been a climate envoy for many years, was quoted by the UAE state-run WAM as saying that this “will be a pivotal year in a pivotal decade for climate action”. He called for a “pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach” to limit global warming to just 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050. Scientists say such restrictions could avoid or at least mitigate some of the most catastrophic harms of future climate change.
Al-Jaber’s nomination, however, drew immediate criticism. Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at the International Climate Action Network, said al-Jaber’s role as chief executive of the state oil company constituted an “unprecedented and worrying conflict of interest”.
“There is no place for polluters at climate conferences, especially presiding over the COP,” Singh said.
Alice Harrison of Global Witness put it more bluntly: “You don’t invite arms dealers to lead peace talks. Why would you ask oil company executives to lead climate talks?” The appointment was “deeply appalled”, adding: “This sets a dangerous precedent that jeopardizes the UAE’s credibility and trust in them.”
Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations, known as the Conference of the Parties, nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically choose an experienced diplomat because navigating talks between competing countries and their interests is difficult. The nominee’s position as “President of the COP” is confirmed by delegates at the start of talks, usually without objection.
Over the years, the capacities of the COP chairs have varied. Britain’s Alok Sharma is widely seen by observers as energetic and committed to achieving ambitious results.
On the other hand, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has been criticized by some for the chaotic and sometimes opaque way he chaired last year’s meeting.
For example, countries including India and the United States have called for a gradual reduction in the use of oil and gas, but there was never a public discussion during the meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, where Shoukry controlled the agenda.
Activists fear something similar could happen in the UAE when the COP is held for the second year in a row in the Middle Eastern country dependent on fossil fuel sales.
WAM said the UAE has invested “more than $50 billion in renewable energy projects in 70 countries and plans to spend at least $50 billion over the next decade.” It was unclear where those figures came from.
Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala has invested about $3.9 billion in renewable energy since 2018, according to New York-based research firm Global SWF. Masdar’s investment in 2020 is US$14.3 billion. Masdar did not respond to questions about its investment on Thursday.
By comparison, Mubadala invested $9.8 billion in oil and gas projects during the same period, Global SWF said.
The UAE has a huge solar park in Dubai, as well as the Barakah nuclear power plant, the only source of atomic energy in the Arabian Peninsula. But it also takes a lot of energy to run the desalination plants that bring green golf courses to vast deserts, power air conditioning that cools cavernous shopping malls during the hot summer months and power aluminum smelters and other heavy industries to provide power.
The UAE’s clean energy policy took off in the mid-2000s, as Dubai’s real estate boom saw it construct the world’s tallest buildings and giant palm-shaped archipelago on its shores. At the time, the World Wildlife Fund estimated that the UAE had the world’s largest per capita ecological footprint—meaning it used more resources per inhabitant than residents of any other country. The UAE remains high on similar lists.
The Masdar City project arose from concerns of being tarnished before it was cut.
al-Jaber told the Associated Press in 2010: “Through real action and investment, we learn lessons that others cannot. We have to learn, adjust, adapt and move forward. We can’t be rigid.” ”
The UAE then turned Masdar City into a campus, which is now home to the United Nations’ International Renewable Energy Agency, and the company itself is investing in renewable energy at home and abroad. Joe Biden even visited Masdar City in 2016, just before stepping down as US vice president.
Analysts believe the UAE is trying to maximize profits before the world increasingly turns to renewable energy. The UAE itself has pledged to become carbon neutral by 2050 – a goal that remains difficult to assess, and authorities have yet to fully explain how they will achieve it.
Alden Meyer, a longtime climate talk watcher at environmental think tank E3G, said the UAE “has made no secret of presenting itself as a major oil and gas producer, and he’s probably close to the country’s rulers”. “I expect (al-Jaber) to have good diplomatic and negotiation skills and the ability to build consensus and compromise.”
COP28 will be held in Dubai Expo City from November 30th to December 12th.
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