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DUBAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) – The head of state oil giant ADNOC will lead this year’s COP28 climate summit, the United Arab Emirates said on Thursday, intensifying activists’ war that big industry is hijacking the global economy. Responding to concerns about the environmental crisis.
Sultan al-Jabir, who is also the UAE’s minister of industry and technology and climate envoy, will help set the agenda for the meeting and intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus, his office said in a statement.
The UAE, a major OPEC oil exporter, will become the second Arab country to host a climate meeting in 2022, after Egypt.
activists and some representatives Criticize COP27saying fossil fuel producers lowered their emissions reduction targets and benefited from sympathetic treatment from Egypt, a gas exporter that often receives Gulf funding.
The Egyptian president has denied the claim.
Global Witness called Al Jaber’s appointment a “severe blow” to the world’s transition away from fossil fuels.
“As at last year’s summit, we are increasingly seeing fossil fuel interests taking control of the process and adapting it to suit their own needs,” Teresa Anderson, ActionAid’s global head of climate justice, said in a statement. added the statement.
More than 600 fossil fuel lobbyists attended climate talks in Sharm el-Sheikh.
“There is a clear conflict of interest in putting an oil company CEO in charge of the COP28 negotiations,” said environmental geographer Lisa Schipper, lead author of last year’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on climate adaptation. Say.
However, as founding CEO of Abu Dhabi renewable energy company Masdar (24% owned by ADNOC), Jaber does have green credentials and oversees its mandate to adopt renewable energy in the UAE.
He is also responsible for overseeing the accelerated implementation of ADNOC’s low carbon growth strategy, which was approved late last year.
The UAE and other Gulf oil producers have called for a realistic transition that would allow hydrocarbons to play a role in energy security, while committing to decarbonisation.
Demands for governments and companies to keep oil and gas in the ground have weakened since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and the European energy crisis.
The UAE, the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.
November 30th to December.12th COP28 will be first global stocktake since landmark meeting 2015 Paris Agreement.
According to the statement, Al Jaber, who will become the first chief executive to chair the COP, said the UAE would bring a “pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach”.
“We will take an inclusive approach that involves all stakeholders,” he added.
EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans said he would meet Jaber this week. “As incoming president, the UAE plays a vital role in shaping the global response to the climate crisis,” he tweeted, adding that “we need to move faster”.
Reporting by Maha El Dahan; Additional reporting by Kate Abnett in Brussels and Gloria Dickie in London; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Andrew Cawthorne
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