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COP28 Adviser Quits Over Alleged UAE Oil and Gas Deal-Making
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole," former Marshallese President Hilda Heine wrote in her resignation letter to COP28 chief Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber.
Dec 01, 2023
United Nations Climate Change Conference advisory board member Hilda Heine resigned on Friday, citing reports that the Emirati oil executive presiding over COP28 has been busy pushing for fossil fuel deals in the run-up to the event.
Earlier this week, the Center for Climate Reporting and the BBC reported that Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—who is simultaneously serving as COP28 president and CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)—"has held scores of meetings with senior government officials, royalty, and business leaders from around the world in recent months" as the "COP28 team has quietly planned to use this access as an opportunity to increase exports of ADNOC's oil and gas."
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole."
In her resignation letter, which was seen and first reported by Reuters, Heine—who is a former president of the low-lying Marshall Islands, one of the world's most climate-imperiled nations—called the United Arab Emirates' plan to make oil and gas deals at COP28 "deeply disappointing."
"These actions undermine the integrity of the COP presidency and the process as a whole," she asserted, adding that the only way Al Jaber can restore confidence is to "deliver an outcome that demonstrates that you are committed to phasing out fossil fuels."
Al Jaber has denied that he's using COP28 for fossil fuel deal-making.
"These allegations are false, not true, incorrect, and not accurate," he said Wednesday at a Dubai press conference. "And it's an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency."
A spokesperson for COP28's presidency said they are "extremely disappointed by Dr. Heine's resignation."
"We appreciated her advice throughout the year and that we only wish she would have been with us here in the UAE celebrating the adoption of a fund that will support vulnerable island states and those most affected by climate impacts," the spokesperson said, referring to the global "loss and damage" fund that one critic
slammed as "a drop in the ocean compared to the scale of the need they are to address."
The UAE isn't the only major oil producer pushing fossil fuels while participating in COP28. Saudi Arabia—whose Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday was among the world leaders kicking off talks at the conference—"is overseeing a sweeping global investment program" intended to "ensure that emerging economies across Africa and Asia become vastly more dependent on oil," the Center for Climate Reporting and Channel 4 News revealed this week.
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200+ Groups Implore COP28 Nations to Address UAE's Human Rights and Climate Abuses
"Allowing COP28 to be held by the rulers of a repressive petrostate, and overseen by an oil executive, is reckless, represents a blatant conflict of interest, and threatens the legitimacy of the whole process."
Sep 13, 2023
More than 200 civil society organizations from around the world on Wednesday urged leaders of countries participating in this autumn's United Nations Climate Change Conference—popularly known as COP28—to address host nation United Arab Emirates' "human rights record and destructive policies on climate change."
"We support the concerns expressed by climate justice movements that allowing COP28 to be held by the rulers of a repressive petrostate, and overseen by an oil executive, is reckless, represents a blatant conflict of interest, and threatens the legitimacy of the whole process," the groups wrote in a letter, referring to Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, the CEO of the United Arab Emirates' state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC)—one of the world's largest fossil fuel firms.
Earlier this year, one European Union lawmaker likened al-Jaber's COP28 presidency to "having a tobacco multinational overseeing the internal work of the World Health Organization."
The groups' letter continues:
Climate justice and human rights are deeply interconnected—there cannot be one without the other. As COP28 delegates prepare to attend the talks in Dubai, it is crucial for the international community to use the opportunity to shine a spotlight on the UAE's human rights record, and to stand in solidarity with communities on the frontlines working to stop climate change impacts and human rights violations in the UAE and across the world.
The signatories called on the world leaders to:
- Demand that the UAE not spy on COP28 attendees and end unlawful surveillance that violates international human rights law;
- Call on the UAE to release all prisoners of conscience;
- Demand action on violations of women's rights;
- Condemn violations of LGBTQ+ rights;
- Call for workers' rights reforms and reparation for forced labor;
- Urge the UAE to stop supporting human rights violators in Yemen and across the Middle East and North Africa; and
- Publicly repudiate UAE greenwashing and fossil fuel hypocrisy.
"In addition, we urge all nations to make meaningful and ambitious commitments at COP28, with rich countries taking responsibility for their historical emissions and leading the way with commitments in line with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities and principles of equity," the letter asserts.
"COP28 must produce a global commitment to phase out all fossil fuels and fossil fuel subsidies at the speed needed to keep global average temperature increases below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels," the signers added.
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COP28 President's State Oil Firm Reported Just 7% of Emissions Last Year: Global Witness
"This is a classic case of hypocritical fossil fuel firms saying one thing and doing another," said a senior Global Witness investigator.
Aug 11, 2023
An investigation published Friday by the international NGO Global Witness revealed that the oil giant run by Emirati Minister of Industry Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber—who is also president of this year's United Nations Climate Change Conference—was responsible for 14 times more planet-heating carbon emissions last year than it reported.
Last month, Al Jaber, who is CEO of state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), said that nations attending this autumn's U.N. summit, or COP28, in Dubai "must be brutally honest" about "all emissions, everywhere. [Scope] 1, 2, and 3."
As Global Witness explained:
Scope 1 and 2 emissions do not include pollution released when fossil fuels like oil and gas are burned for energy. These—known as scope 3—typically make up the vast majority of an oil company's carbon footprint. Although most oil and gas majors do not traditionally track Scope 3, some such as BP and Chevron do include scope 3 reductions in their climate targets.
Analysis of production data from Rystad Energy shows that ADNOC in 2022 produced over 650 million barrels of oil—enough to power China's oil demand for six weeks—and over 40 billion cubic meters of gas.
Emissions from those products alone are calculated to just over 340 million tonnes of CO2—more than the U.K. produces each year, and 14.1 times higher than the emissions the ADNOC disclosed this week.
"This is a classic case of hypocritical fossil fuel firms saying one thing and doing another," Global Witness senior investigator Patrick Galey said in a statement. "Sultan Al Jaber is on one hand asking companies to include all emissions in their climate strategies, while his firm is patting itself on the back for disclosing only a tiny fraction of its true climate impact."
"Fossil fuels account for 90% of the carbon emissions that are heating the planet and inflicting misery and loss on millions of people. The climate doesn't respond to clever accounting," Galey added. "While conceding publicly that a liveble future means cutting all emissions, Al Jaber's firm is refusing to acknowledge the vast majority of its products' emissions as its own."
At the same time, Al Jaber is presiding over a massive expansion of ADNOC—the world's 11th-largest fossil fuel company—that is planned to boost production by the equivalent of over 7.5 billion barrels of oil in the coming years. According to The Guardian, that's the world's fifth-largest increase.
Climate defenders have warned all year that COP28 is likely to end in failure after the UAE appointed Al Jaber to preside over the summit, which seeks to "unite the world towards agreement" on "the most pressing global challenge of our time."
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