Sultan Al Jaber, this year’s UN climate talks president, said the oil and gas industry must lead the fight against climate change.
Al Jaber is the minister of industry for the United Arab Emirates and the chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
Climate activists have criticized the decision to hold COP28 in the UAE, a major oil producer, and Al Jaber’s choice as the meeting’s president.
“No one can be on the sidelines, and this industry, in particular, is integral to developing the solution,” Al Jaber told hundreds of oil and gas executives at the CERAWeek conference in Houston, Texas.”
“This industry must take responsibility and lead the way,” he added.
The last UN climate talks in Egypt in November ended with a landmark deal to create a fund to cover developing countries’ costs from climate-linked natural disasters.
But observers were disappointed that little progress was made on reducing planet-heating carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
Al Jaber, who has participated in more than 10 COP meetings, headed the UAE’s delegation to Egypt’s last UN climate summit. It was the biggest delegation to attend the talks and one of the largest in COP history.
In Houston, he said the oil and gas industry must” “rapidly decarbonize its operations… and has a vital role in decarbonizing its customer”.”
“The science is clear. We need to get fully behind net zero”,” he said.
The oil and gas industry has been accused of delaying the climate and energy transition by working to preserve the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels.
The UAE, one of the world’s biggest oil producers, argues that crude remains indispensable to the global economy and is needed to finance the energy transition.
The Gulf monarchy is pushing the merits of carbon capture — removing carbon dioxide as fuel is burned or from the air. (AFP)
