(Ottawa) The federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, intends to collaborate with the president of COP28, whose appointment has been criticized by many since he is the head of an oil company.
“Minister Guilbeault intends to collaborate later this year with the President of COP28 in order to pursue the implementation of a vigorous and ambitious program on the fight against climate change,” his office said on Friday in a written statement sent to The Canadian Press.
The day before, the United Arab Emirates announced the appointment of Sultan al-Jaber, who is chairman and managing director (CEO) of Abu Dhabi National Oil. The company pumps some four million barrels of crude a day and hopes to reach five million daily.
Environmental groups have ripped the nomination to pieces. The Associated Press notably reported that Harjeet Singh, who is head of global policy strategy at Climate Action Network International, claimed that the fact that al-Jaber holds the title of CEO of the oil company State poses “an unprecedented and alarming conflict of interest”.
Friday morning, the Bloc Québécois demanded that the government of Justin Trudeau put pressure on the United Arab Emirates to revoke the appointment, as well as to “ensure that the presidency of COP28 is not entrusted to a representative of the oil industry “.
” It is unacceptable ! It is already deplorable to hold the next climate conference in the United Arab Emirates, a country which was built with oil money, without however suffering the odiousness of a presidency held by a representative of this industry ! “Launched, in a press release, the party’s spokesperson for the environment, Monique Pauzé.
Asked to indicate whether he was open to this request from the Bloc, Mr. Guilbeault’s office did not seem favorable since he mentioned a future “collaboration” with the newly appointed president.
The Minister’s office took advantage of its written statement to recall Canada’s objectives in the fight against climate change.
“In December, our government announced the end of all new support for the international fossil fuel energy sector. We’re also on track to phase out coal-generated power at home by 2030, it said. We are more determined than ever to support the global transition to cleaner, renewable forms of energy, breaking our reliance on fossil fuels. »
Sultan al-Jaber also previously spearheaded a once ambitious project to create a US$22 billion ‘carbon neutral’ city on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi – an ambition that had been dampened by the global financial crisis that hit the Emirates hard in from 2008. Even today, he is chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company spun off from the project that now operates in more than 40 countries.
With information from The Associated Press