Sultan al-Jaber, also head of the Emirati oil company, delivered the menu of objectives he intends to bring to COP28, which will open on November 30 in Dubai.
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When asked when the world will burn its last drop of oil, Sultan al-Jaber has a simple answer: when there will be enough low-carbon energy to replace it. “We cannot end the current energy system until we have built the energy system of tomorrow”replies the Emirati president of the most important international climate conference since the one that delivered the Paris agreement, in an interview with AFP on Thursday July 13.
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While a year earlier, the Giec warned in its report that “any further delay in global action (…) will cause us to miss the brief window of opportunity we have to secure a viable and sustainable future for all”Sultan al-Jaber argues that doing without oil, gas and coal, responsible for global warming, overnight is unrealistic. “We must keep in mind that 800 million people do not have access to electricity today”he said, “we don’t want to create an energy crisis”.
An important place for the private sector at the Dubai COP
The man who is also boss of the Emirati oil company had just delivered for the first time the menu of objectives he intends to bring to COP28, which will open on November 30 in Dubai, in a speech in Brussels in front of European ministers and Chinese. To those who hope that the world will call for an exit from oil and gas, he replies that their reduction is “inevitable” And “essential”but that it has ” no magic wand”. “I don’t want to invent dates that are not justified”he points out, assuring that no one is able to put forward a precise date for the exit from fossil fuels.
By unveiling the objectives of COP28, he showed that he wanted to renew the genre of the annual conference. In particular, he wants to combine the commitments of the States under the aegis of the UN and those of the industrialists and the private sector, to which he intends to give a large place in Dubai. He expects 70,000 participants, double the largest past COPs. “We must do everything to keep 1.5°C within reach”insisted Sultan al-Jaber, referring to the maximum warming objective set by the Paris agreement.