After a year 2022 marked by the increasingly serious climate consequences of our dependence on fossil fuels, the presidency of the next UN climate conference (COP28) should be entrusted on Thursday to a senior executive of the main oil company of the Emirates. United Arabs, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber. The latter has often pleaded for a substantial increase in investment in oil and gas exploitation.
Since COP28 will be held in the United Arab Emirates at the end of 2023, it is up to this monarchical state to name the person who will chair this crucial conference for the global fight against the climate crisis, which is still facing serious delays, seven years after the signing of the Paris Agreement. In this context, the president of the UN summit must play an important role, that of encouraging the 196 delegations to demonstrate greater ambition in terms of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.
In all likelihood, the title of chair of the climate negotiations scheduled for this fall in Dubai will be granted this Thursday to Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, who currently acts as special envoy for climate change for the United Arab Emirates.
The latter is also chairman and managing director of the main national oil company in the country, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, whose annual turnover exceeds 60 billion dollars. This multinational, the twelfth largest oil company in the world, specializes in particular in the marketing of drilling operations, oil refining and liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects.
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which controls much of the oil exploitation in the country, currently has a total daily production capacity of more than four million barrels of oil. It also plans to increase this capacity to more than five million barrels per day by 2030.
In defense of oil
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber is also an ardent defender of the development of the oil and gas sector. Last November, in a speech at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, he argued for the increased development of fossil fuels over the next few years.
“The world needs all possible solutions. These include oil, gas, solar, wind and nuclear power, hydrogen and clean energies yet to be discovered, commercialized and deployed,” he told the platform of this summit, which brought together the largest fossil fuel companies on the planet.
“Our efforts should focus on a bold, realistic and pragmatic new path that benefits humanity, the climate and the economy,” added the man who is also chairman of Masdar, an Abu Dhabi company specializing in renewable energies. “We need to limit emissions [de gaz à effet de serre], not increase them. »
In 2021, the person who will chair COP28 also deplored the lack of investment in the development of new oil and gas fields: “The oil and gas industry will have to invest more than 600 billion dollars each year until 2030, even if to meet expected demand. »
Our dependence on fossil fuels is however on the way to leading us towards a real climatic shipwreck. According to a report published in May 2021 by the International Energy Agency, all new fossil fuel exploration and exploitation projects should be abandoned to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 and limit global warming to + 1.5°C. At present, the commitments made by the signatory countries of the Paris Agreement lead us rather towards a warming of at least 2.5°C, according to the UN.
What’s more, data released in the fall of 2022 by the International Energy Agency indicated that global greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion increased by 300 million tonnes in 2022, to reach 33.8 billion tons. Last year was also marked by a record use of coal, the worst fossil fuel. No less than eight billion tons were burned.
Reviews
Even before the confirmation of the appointment of the president of COP28, the probable choice of the United Arab Emirates is raising criticism, in particular from the acting director general of the Canada Climate Action Network, Caroline Brouillette.
“If he chairs COP28, Sultan Al Jaber must imperatively resign as Chairman and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, otherwise he would be in a gross conflict of interest. For a fossil fuel executive to chair a conference aimed at solving the climate crisis would be absolutely goofy, especially after a year in which the devastating impacts of its industry’s delay and dilution tactics are more salient than ever,” she said. To have to.
Ms. Brouillette recalls that the most recent UN climate conference (COP27) was largely a failure, due to the strong presence of representatives of the fossil fuel industry. “After a COP27 that felt like a global gas conference, with a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists in attendance and where the big missing piece of the discussion was the transition away from fossil fuels, we can only afford COP28 be completely captured by the oil and gas industry. »
This is not the first time that the host country of the COP on the climate has been criticized. Poland, a country heavily dependent on coal, has already organized three COPs, in 2008, 2013 and 2018. Qatar also hosted COP18 in 2012.