Not the first time COP President comes from fossil fuel producing country: UAE official

“Our presidency is not about preferring one ideology over the other. It is about the science.”

Criticism, that the UAE’s leadership this year of annual UN climate talks conflicted with its position as one of the world’s biggest producers of oil, was “surprising” and unfounded, a senior leader of the COP presidency told The Hindu in an interview on Friday.

The 28th edition of the Conference of Parties (COP), set to unfurl over two weeks in Dubai next month, where heads of state, business delegations, climate and energy think tanks from over 190 countries converge annually to negotiate responsibility for keeping global temperatures from rising above 1.5C this year, has stirred a unique controversy centred around its president, Sultan Al-Jaber. His position as head of one of the world’s largest oil companies, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, has drawn criticism — primarily from the West — that he would as COP President be least likely to push the world away from fossil fuels.

“We were quite surprised,” Majid Al-Suwaidi, Director-General, COP-28, and a senior member of the presidency team, told The Hindu. “This isn’t the first time that a COP President comes from a country that’s a fossil fuel producing one and such criticism has never been raised before. We have for decades followed a path of development that minimises wastage. We were once an economy that relied on pearl-diving that was destroyed once the Japanese invented the artificial pearl. We have always known that the development of a new technology can take away [an economy based on a natural resource]. We are not shy of the fact that we are an oil-and-gas producing company. That’s something that has built our country. But we need to transition to a future economy and we have started this many years ago. Our economy is today 70% not-oil-and-gas. People criticised us when we built our tourism economy, when we made Masdar (renewable energy company). We are used to criticism but we act and deliver. Our President [of the UAE] has asked us to celebrate the day we deliver our last barrel of oil.”

Mr. Al-Suwaidi said the world had to think of ways to deliver “practical solutions” on how to transition people in developing countries to new jobs without compromising on development. Business and economies have to know what they are getting rather than “what was being taken away” and how we can protect biodiversity, the rights of indigenous peoples and ensure jobs for women and children in the future, he added.

The COP presidency’s role in the negotiations would be to get all countries to do more than what they have committed to as the current trajectory of emissions suggested 43% more emissions (by 2030 over 2019 levels) were likely to be emitted, than what was necessary to keep temperatures below 1.5C.

“Our presidency is not about preferring one ideology over the other. It is about the science. We need to address the 22 gigatons [billion tonnes] of CO2 and that is by decarbonising while building a new economy. All of the net-zero projections for 2050 do account for a limited amount of fossil fuels. We need to make sure that the mix is the right one to achieve the 1.5C target.”

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi expected to visit Dubai as part of COP proceedings, Mr. Al-Suwaidi said the conference would be the “most high profile” in terms of attendance. “Since we took over the presidency, we have travelled all around the world and talked to businesses, NGOs, governments and listened to them to understand why are we off track [at limiting emissions]. “India has a critical role and that is why it is the country we first visited and visited the most [in the run-up to COP-28]. This is the COP for Asia and if it works for India it will work for many [countries],” he added.