Companies like ADNOC and Saudi Arabia’s Aramco oil company need to stop investing in oil and gas and spend much more on renewables if they are serious about the transition to clean energy, he added. “Just look at the spending of oil and gas companies and how that’s allocated,” Razzouk said. “Fossil fuel profits are most certainly not powering investments in clean energy,” Assaad Razzouk, a clean energy analyst in Singapore, told CNN. Al Jaber on Saturday called for a tripling of renewable energy output around the world and twice as much money for adaptation in the global south.īut that’s not enough, climate experts say. Last year, it entered a pact with the United States to invest another $100 billion in clean energy. Over the past 15 years, the UAE has invested $40 billion in renewable energy and clean technology globally, according to the Atlantic Council think tank. The country is future-proofing its energy sector and will “celebrate” the last barrel of oil it exports, Al Jaber said at an energy summit in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. The UAE has touted the mantra of “maximum energy, minimum emissions,” saying that instead of phasing out fossil fuels, it will work on making their extraction cleaner, and reinvest its revenues into renewable energy in an effort to raise its share of the nation’s energy mix. The UAE has the expertise “to get every sector, particularly those hard to abate, aligned with 1.5,” he said, referring to the climate goal to stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming. Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on Monday called the UAE’s hosting of the summit a “unique opportunity” at an environmental summit in Abu Dhabi. The company he leads “knows it needs to transition,” Kerry said. But they can slash their emissionsĪl Jaber’s dual roles are what make him a “terrific choice,” US Climate Envoy John Kerry was cited as saying by the Associated Press on Monday. Gehad Hamdy/picture alliance/Getty Images UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan visits the Saudi booth during the COP27 climate summit in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh on Thursday. “At face value, the head of a national oil company is obviously facing a massive conflict of interest,” he said. Tom Evans, a policy adviser at the European climate change think tank E3G, told CNN that Al Jaber’s appointment raises questions about the credibility of the UAE’s COP28 presidency. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates a nearly 50% increase in global energy use by 2050, with oil and gas remaining the most-consumed sources of energy. “Recent events have shown that unplugging the current energy system before we have built a sufficiently robust alternative puts both economic and climate progress at risk – and calls into question whether we can ensure a just transition that is equitable to all,” Al Jaber wrote last year in an opinion piece for Project Syndicate. It has argued that given the projected growth in global energy demand, both clean and dirty energy will be needed to power the world, and a hasty transition away from oil and gas could have a detrimental effect on the global economy. The message the UAE is sending is that both fossil fuels and renewable energy must be part of the global energy mix, and that one does not have to replace the other. He took on the climate portfolio over a decade before becoming a top oil executive, helping launch the state’s clean energy company Masdar in 2006 and bringing the International Renewable Energy Agency’s headquarters to Abu Dhabi in 2009. Aside from being the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), he is also the UAE’s climate envoy, tasked with spearheading its energy policy. Sultan Al Jaber, who will preside over the November summit, wears two very prominent hats in the UAE. The UAE’s involvement has sparked a discussion on whether there’s a place in the climate space for countries that rely primarily on fossil fuel exports for their income. This year’s COP28 climate summit is mired in controversy, held in one of the world’s biggest oil exporting nations – the United Arab Emirates – and headed by one of the most prominent faces in its oil industry.Įnvironmental activists have cried foul, arguing that the climate debate has been hijacked by the fossil fuel lobby to protect the profit-maximizing agendas of petrostates.
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