The oil industry can and must contribute to the fight against global warming, it is “part of the solution”, that’s what the head of COP28 (which begins on November 30 in Dubai) says. Himself the boss of an oil company…
Since his controversial appointment, Sultan al-Jaber has struggled to convince. Ebeing both CEO of the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, one of the main exporters of crude oil in the world, and president of the COP, responsible for planning the end of black gold in the name of the fight against change climatic… It smacks of a slight conflict of interest.
>> Environment: who is Sultan al-jaber, the Emirati president of COP28, boss of an oil company
A bit as if the Europeans were having fun appointing a former Shell employee as climate commissioner (but that’s not fiction either). PFor climate NGOs, Sultan-al-Jaber will inevitably give space to fossil fuel lobbyists, and reduce the ambitions of the conference.
On the contrary, he tells him that there is no point in targeting the oil and gas industry, in insisting that it is part of the problem when it is at the heart of the solution. At the Dubai energy fair yesterday, he urged bosses to do more and assured that around twenty companies have made concrete commitments, agreeing, for example, to reduce their methane emissions to zero. by 2030, in particular by putting an end to flaring, a very polluting practice which consists of burning gas on the surface instead of capturing it.
A double talk
But he does not want to completely give up fossil fuels. LThe picture it takes is that to unplug the world from the current energy system and put in place a new system, it is not enough to just press a button.
The exit from fossil fuels is “inevitable and essential“that’s what he says but for now we have to be pragmatic, realistic, and continue to invest in oil to satisfy global demand. Sultan al-Jaber’s company, which pumps four million barrels of crude oil every day, hopes to increase to five million within two years.
His way of balancing things out, his ambiguities, are a perfect indicator of the two totally contradictory approaches to how we must fight global warming. On the one hand, countries that focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, without necessarily completely eliminating fossil fuels. On the other hand, those who call for the abandonment of oil, gas and coal for a rapid transition to renewable energy sources. Bringing them together will be the challenge of COP28.