DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates said on Thursday that Sultan Al-Jaber, the head of state oil giant ADNOC, would act as president of the COP28 climate conference it is hosting this year.
Jaber, also UAE’s minister of industry and technology and its climate envoy, will help develop the COP28 agenda and play a central role in intergovernmental negotiations to build consensus, his office said in a statement.
The UAE, a major OPEC oil exporter, will be the second Arab state to host the climate conference after Egypt hosted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) in 2022.
As founding CEO of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy firm Masdar, in which ADNOC has a 24 percent stake, Jaber has green credentials having overseen its mandate to adopt renewables in the UAE.
He is also overseeing an acceleration of ADNOC’s low-carbon growth strategy approved late last year.
The UAE and other Gulf energy producers have called for a realistic energy transition in which hydrocarbons would continue playing a role to ensure energy security while making commitments to decarbonization.
Demands from environmental groups and scientists that government and companies leave oil and gas in the ground have gained less traction since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year and Europe’s scramble for energy security.
The UAE, the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement, has committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
The COP28 conference will be the first global stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015.
Jaber, who according to the statement, would be the first CEO to serve as COP president, said the UAE would bring “a pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach” to the conference.
“We will take an inclusive approach that engages all stakeholders.”
UAE names ADNOC chief Jaber as COP28 climate conference president
https://arab.news/95uyh
UAE names ADNOC chief Jaber as COP28 climate conference president
- The COP28 conference will be the first global stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015
- Jaber is overseeing an acceleration of ADNOC’s low-carbon growth strategy
Experts clash over effect of war on oil supply
- International energy chief dismisses crisis fears * But Qatari minister warns exports could halt ‘in weeks’
BRUSSELS: International Energy Agency chief Fatih Birol on Friday dismissed fears of a global oil crisis, and said there was “plenty of oil in the market.”
But he was contradicted by Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Al-Kaabi, who said Gulf oil producers could halt exports within weeks because of the US-Israel-Iran war, sending crude prices to $150 a barrel.
The war on Iran and Tehran’s retaliatory attacks across the Gulf have already sent crude prices soaring by about 20 percent, fanning fears of a fresh spike in inflation that could hit the global economy. Shipping through the critical Strait of Hormuz has all but dried up.
US President Donald Trump has pledged to protect ships passing through and promised further action to “reduce pressure on oil,” but prices have remained elevated. Brent crude, the global benchmark, was up 2.77 percent on Friday to nearly $88 a barrel.
However, Birol said: “There is plenty of oil, we have no oil shortage. There is a huge surplus in the market. We are facing a temporary disruption, a logistical disruption.”
Nevertheless, Al-Kaabi insisted there would be pressure on oil supplies “in two to three weeks” if tankers were unable to pass through the Strait.
“Everybody that has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days that this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call force majeure,” he said. “Everybody's energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply.”
Qatar halted its liquefied natural gas production on March 2, as Iranian retaliation for US and Israeli strikes continued to target Gulf countries.
