Time running out for UAE to save its COP28

The United Arab Emirates is not the first oil country to host a UN climate change conference, nor is it the first authoritarian regime. Sultan al-Jaber, who was chosen to chair this year’s COP28 conference in Dubai, is also not the first person to have worked over the years to advance his country’s fossil fuel interests. But dissatisfaction with the UAE’s handling of COP28 has raised questions about its fitness for the job.

With more than five months until the meeting begins, Abu Dhabi still has work to do to dispel doubts that led more than 130 US and EU lawmakers to call for Jaber’s removal last month. The lawmakers’ move reflects broader public unease.Jabir is the supervisor COP28 Also runs one of the world’s largest oil and gas groups, the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Adnoc – last year speed up plan to increase oil production capacity.

The conflict is obvious. Greenhouse gas emissions must be halved by 2030 for global warming to meet the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C target.while in Character The use of fossil fuels, which account for more than 75 percent of these emissions, must be “significantly reduced,” according to recommendations by the UN’s authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

With temperatures already above 1.1C and signs of heatwaves, floods and raging wildfires increasingly evident, time is running out. Scientists believe temperatures could exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius for at least one of the next five years – a prospect that was staggering not so long ago.

After a dismal COP27 meeting in Egypt last year, the UAE is off to a good start. It hired a group of Western climate experts and consultants to participate in the work of COP28. It supports a key agenda item, a “global stocktake” of progress towards the Paris goals, aimed at sparking new climate action. It’s scheduled for a conference and 70,000 expected attendees at a huge Dubai Convention Centre. Often, visitors have to scramble to and from several sites.

Even the unwise choice of an oilman to chair the COP makes some sense internally. Jaber has COP experience and was the founding CEO of UAE-based renewable energy group Masdar, years before green energy became mainstream in the oil-rich Gulf region. Optimists see his chance to use Adnoc’s clout to push for meaningful decarbonisation of all oil producers.

Likewise, there are hopes that he can map out a path to stronger climate finance. But it will require remarkable diplomatic skills from the demanding Jaber, whose COP28 team has parted ways with at least three international communications agencies in the past year.

Last month, he also spoke of the need to alarm some climate diplomats cut Fossil fuel emissions, not used. This echoes longstanding calls from the oil and gas industry to step up carbon capture technology, which must actually play a minor role rather than a protagonist in the immediate effort to curb emissions. Fresh concerns arose when the UAE invited Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to a COP already strained by geopolitical tensions.

Although Jaber said in Bonn’s pre-COP28 discussions last week that “the gradual reduction of fossil fuels is inevitable”, he did not give a timetable. Most importantly, he did not explain the UAE’s plan to ensure that the Dubai COP made progress where many of its predecessors failed. The plan needs to dramatically accelerate an orderly, equitable and — most importantly — rapid global shift away from the fossil fuels that are at the heart of the climate problem, not just their emissions. It must be made public as soon as possible. The world cannot afford to waste another COP.