UAE sparks furious backlash by appointing Abu Dhabi oil chief as president of COP28 climate summit

The United Arab Emirates announced Thursday that the caput of the authorities lipid elephantine Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), 1 of the world's largest lipid companies, volition pb the COP28 clime talks successful Dubai aboriginal this year.

The assignment of Sultan al-Jaber arsenic COP28 president-designate provoked a furious backlash from clime activists and civilian nine groups. Many called on the lipid chief to relinquish his relation arsenic ADNOC CEO, saying it represents a wide struggle of involvement with his COP28 position.

The bureau of al-Jaber — who besides serves arsenic UAE curate for manufacture and exertion and the country's clime envoy — said helium would play a pivotal relation successful intergovernmental negotiations successful bid to physique statement astatine the conference.

The UAE, the 3rd largest shaper of the OPEC lipid alliance, volition big the U.N.-brokered clime talks from Nov. 30 done to Dec. 12.

In a connection confirming his assignment al-Jaber said, "The UAE is approaching COP28 with a beardown consciousness of work and the highest imaginable level of ambition."

"Pragmatism and constructive dialog indispensable beryllium astatine the forefront of our progress," helium added.

Al-Jaber's bureau said the curate had played a "proactive participatory role" astatine much than 10 COP summits and brings to his relation 2 decades of concern and enactment acquisition successful government, clime argumentation and crossed the renewable and vigor sectors.

The designation has triggered a question of planetary criticism:

"This assignment goes beyond putting the fox successful complaint of the henhouse," said Teresa Anderson, planetary pb connected clime justness astatine ActionAid, a improvement charity.

"The UN Climate Summit is expected to beryllium a abstraction wherever the satellite holds polluters to account, but progressively [it's] being hijacked by those with opposing interests. 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," Anderson said.

Tasneem Essop, caput of the Climate Action Network, which includes much than 1,500 civilian nine groups, said al-Jaber "cannot preside implicit a process that is tasked to code the clime situation with specified a struggle of interest."

In comments quoted by The Guardian, Essop added that al-Jaber's assignment was "tantamount to a full-scale seizure of the UN clime talks by a petrostate nationalist lipid institution and its associated fossil substance lobbyists."

COPs "have ever been circuses. Now they are implicit jokes," Bill McGuire, prof emeritus of geophysical and clime hazards astatine University College London, said via Twitter.

"We request abstracted lasting bodies focusing connected energy, transport, deforestation, nonaccomplishment & harm etc, moving each twelvemonth round," helium added. "Not this bloated festival of satellite person photoshoots and lipid execs."

A spokesperson for the UAE clime alteration peculiar envoy and U.N. Framework Convention connected Climate Change was not instantly disposable to comment.

Last year's November COP27 league successful Egypt saw a crisp leap successful the fig of attendees associated with the world's biggest polluting lipid and state giants. It was described astatine the clip arsenic a "twisted joke" that represented the fossil substance industry's quality to power proceedings.

Burning fossil fuels, specified arsenic coal, lipid and gas, is the main operator of the clime emergency.

The upcoming COP28 acme volition beryllium the archetypal planetary stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement. The 2015 accord aims to bounds planetary heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius supra pre-industrial levels.

Beyond this captious somesthesia ceiling, it becomes much apt that tiny changes tin trigger melodramatic shifts successful Earth's full beingness enactment system.

The UAE was the archetypal Mideast state to ratify the Paris accord and has committed to reaching net-zero emissions by the mediate of the century.