UAE’s top oil chief lays out plan to fix COP28

In the months leading up to the signing of the Paris Agreement, the then crown prince of oil-rich Abu Dhabi loudly questioned his emirate’s fate at the end of the fossil fuel era. “Would it be sad if we finished this last barrel?” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan told the 2015 United Arab Emirates government summit. Participants ask questions. “If our investment is right today, I think — my dear brothers and sisters — we’ll celebrate that moment.”

Soon, the chief handed over the management to the ADNOCinternational 12th largest producer Oil and gas, to an Emirati renewable energy executive named Sultan Al Jaber. The move appeared to mark a shift in a country with roughly $9 trillion in untapped oil resources. In just a few decades, Adnoc’s extraordinary wealth has filled a sparsely populated desert with gleaming cityscapes, lush golf courses and a gigantic airport. It will be entrusted to a man who has spent most of his career investing in renewable energy and trying unsuccessfully to build zero-carbon cities in deserts. Mission: Figure out how to sell energy indefinitely, even if it means doing-at a certain point-No global warming emissions.