In UAE, French finance minister warns of climate action cost
ABC News
Just over a week after some 200 nations struck an agreement aimed at intensifying global efforts to fight climate change, the finance minister of France has warned that the cost of the energy transition will be “much higher than expected.”
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates -- Just over a week after some 200 nations struck an agreement aimed at intensifying global efforts to fight climate change, the finance minister of France warned on Sunday that the cost of the energy transition will be “much higher than expected.”
“We should never underestimate the price of the climate transition,” Bruno Le Maire told reporters in Abu Dhabi, the oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Reveling in France’s strong economic rebound from the devastation of the pandemic, Le Maire was in the Gulf Arab sheikhdom to discuss joint investments in a wide range of fields, from port infrastructure to hydrogen fuel and renewable energy.
The UAE has publicly pledged to have net zero carbon emissions by 2050, among a list of countries that made the long-range, still-vague commitment before the climate summit in Glasgow opened earlier this month. Even as the country with the region’s first nuclear power plant tries to position itself as a leader on environmental issues, the hydrocarbon-rich UAE’s economy feeds on petrodollars.
