The fight against global warming must not come at the expense of economic growth, said Sultan al-Jaber, president of COP28 and head of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company, on Monday.
“We must limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C without slowing economic growth,” said Sultan al-Jaber, who is also industry minister and his country’s special climate envoy.
“We must make our planet richer and healthier at the same time,” he said at the inauguration ceremony of the Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence in Abu Dhabi.
Even before it was held at the end of November 2023 in Dubai, COP28 aroused skepticism among environmental activists.
In particular, they believe that the appointment as head of the next UN climate conference of a boss from the oil industry “threatens the legitimacy and effectiveness of COP28. »
Sultan al-Jaber is the CEO of the oil giant ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company), but he is also at the head of Masdar, the Emirati renewable energy company. His appointment was hailed by US climate envoy John Kerry.
After difficult negotiations, the COP27 in November in Egypt resulted in a highly disputed text on aid to poor countries affected by climate change.
But it has failed to advance the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, to maintain the objective of limiting global warming. And the issue of less use of fossil fuels was barely mentioned in the texts.
The United Arab Emirates, one of the world’s largest oil producers, says crude oil remains vital to the global economy and is needed to fund the energy transition.
The Gulf monarchy is also spending billions of dollars to develop enough renewable energy to meet half of its needs by 2050.
Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of UN-Climate, however, estimated that holding COP28 in the United Arab Emirates will be an opportunity to address the “difficult questions” of fossil fuels.