Op-ed: Oil CEO Sultan Al Jaber is the ideal person to lead the UN climate conference this year

ABU DHABI -- If the satellite gets lucky, this could beryllium the twelvemonth fossil substance producers and clime activists hide their hatchets and articulation hands to trim emissions and guarantee our planet's future.

If that sounds hopelessly Utopian, instrumentality that up with the leaders of this resource-rich, renewables-generating Middle Eastern monarchy. The United Arab Emirates is determined to inject specificity, urgency, and pragmatism into a process that often has lacked each three: the 28th convening of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known arsenic COP 28, which the UAE volition big from November 30 to December 12. 

To footwear disconnected 2023, the lipid and state and clime communities gathered this play for the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum, launching the yearly Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week. After decades of communal mistrust, determination is simply a increasing designation they can't unrecorded without each other.

Thank Russian President Vladimir Putin's criminal warfare successful Ukraine, and his ongoing weaponization of energy, for injecting a caller dose of hard-headed world into clime conversations. It's seldom been truthful wide that vigor information and cleaner vigor are indivisible. The guiding rule is "the vigor sustainability trilemma," defined arsenic the request to equilibrium vigor reliability, affordability, and sustainability.

What's contributing to this caller pragmatism is simply a designation by overmuch of the clime assemblage that the energy modulation to renewables can't beryllium achieved without fossil fuels, truthful they indispensable beryllium made cleaner. They person travel to accept that earthy gas, successful peculiar liquified earthy state (LNG), with fractional the emissions footprint of coal, provides a almighty bridging fuel. 

Once derided by greenish activists, nuclear powerfulness is besides winning implicit caller fans—particularly erstwhile it comes to the small, modular plants wherever determination are less concerns implicit information and weapons proliferation. 

For their part, astir each large lipid and state producers, who erstwhile viewed clime activists with disdain, present clasp the world of clime subject and are investing billions of dollars successful renewables and efforts to marque their fossil fuels cleaner.

"Every superior hydrocarbon shaper knows the future, successful a satellite of declining usage of fossil fuels, is to beryllium debased cost, debased hazard and debased carbon," said David Goldwyn, the erstwhile State Department peculiar envoy for energy. "The lone mode to guarantee we bash this is to person manufacture astatine the table."

Nowhere is this displacement among clime activists much evident than successful Germany, wherever Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, the Green Party leader, is serving arsenic the pragmatist-in-chief. 

Habeck, who serves arsenic Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, has been the driving unit down extending the beingness of the country's 3 atomic plants done April and successful launching Germany's archetypal LNG import terminal successful December, with arsenic galore arsenic 5 much to follow.

"I americium yet liable for the information of the German vigor system," Habeck told Financial Times' newsman Guy Chazan successful a sweeping profile of the German politician. "So, the subordinate stops with me. … I became curate to marque pugnacious decisions, not to beryllium Germany's astir fashionable politician."

Some clime activists were aghast this Thursday erstwhile the UAE named Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), arsenic president of this year's COP 28. 

"This assignment goes beyond putting the fox successful complaint of the henhouse," said Teresa Anderson of ActionAid, a improvement charity. "Like past year's summit, we're progressively seeing fossil substance interests taking power of the process and shaping it to conscionable their ain needs."

What that overlooks is that Al Jaber's rich inheritance successful some renewables and fossil fuels marque him an perfect prime astatine a clip erstwhile efforts to code clime alteration person been acold excessively slow, lacking the inclusivity to nutrient much transformative results.  

Al Jaber is CEO of the world's 14th largest lipid producer, but helium astatine the aforesaid clip was the founding CEO of Masdar, 1 of the world's largest renewables investors, wherever helium remains chairman. He besides represents a state that contempt its assets riches has go a large atomic powerfulness producer, was the archetypal Middle East state to articulation the Paris Climate Agreement and was the first Middle East state to acceptable retired a roadmap to nett zero emissions by 2050.  

Over the past 15 years, the UAE has invested $40 cardinal successful renewable vigor and cleanable tech globally. In November it signed a concern with the United States to put an additional $100 cardinal successful cleanable energy. Some 70% of the UAE system is generated extracurricular the lipid and state sector, making it an objection among large producing countries successful its diversification.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, has explained his country's approach this way: "There volition beryllium a time, 50 years from now, erstwhile we load the past tube of lipid aboard the ship. The question is… are we going to consciousness sad? If our concern contiguous is right, I think—dear brothers and sisters—we volition observe that moment."

Al Jaber, speaking to the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum connected Saturday, captured his ambition to thrust faster and much transformative results astatine COP 28.

"We are mode disconnected track," said Al Jaber.

"The satellite is playing catchup erstwhile it comes to the cardinal Paris extremity of holding planetary temperatures down to 1.5 degrees," helium said. "And the hard world is that successful bid to execute this goal, planetary emissions indispensable autumn 43% by 2030. To adhd to that challenge, we indispensable alteration emissions astatine a clip of continued economical uncertainty, heightened geopolitical tensions and expanding unit connected energy." 

He called for "transformational progress… done game-changing partnerships, solutions and outcomes." He said the satellite indispensable triple renewable vigor procreation from 8 terawatt hours to 23, and much than treble low-carbon hydrogen accumulation to 180 cardinal tons for concern sectors, which person the hardest c footprint to abate. 

"We will enactment with the vigor manufacture connected accelerating the decarbonization, reducing methane, and expanding hydrogen," said Al Jaber. "Let's support our absorption connected holding backmost emissions, not progress."

If that sounds Utopian, let's person much of it.   

 — Frederick Kempe is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Atlantic Council.