Jan 12, 2023 at 2:23 PMUpdate: 28 minutes ago
The United Arab Emirates has appointed Sultan Al Jaber to chair the UN climate summit in Dubai. The 49-year-old diplomat is the chairman of a national oil company.
After a difficult climate summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm-el-Sheikh, the baton has been handed over to the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was feared beforehand that the choice of the UAE as host country would clash with the country’s oil interests. Oil revenues are important to the Gulf state, which is the world’s eighth largest oil producer.
In any case, the country’s oil sector will soon have a short line to the center of the climate negotiations. The climate summit is led by Al Jaber, who is chairman of the board of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
The news comes as no surprise: Al Jaber has been the UAE’s regular climate envoy at climate summits for years.
Chairman can make climate summit succeed or fail
Every year, the United Nations organizes a two-week climate summit. These are difficult negotiations, because almost two hundred countries have to agree on subjects where direct interests sometimes conflict.
The presidency can often be decisive here. For example, the important climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 failed. Denmark took too little control, so that the climate summit got bogged down in quarrels between countries. France took that lesson to heart six years later by not closing the Paris summit until a major deal was reached.
The last two climate summits are also clear examples. Glasgow in 2021 was relatively successful because the British chairman had already discussed the opportunities with countries before the climate summit. This enabled feasible proposals to be made quickly during the summit.
In Sharm el-Sheikh, things went less smoothly last November. The intention is that the host country will provide text proposals during the conference, which countries can discuss. The first proposal came in Egypt after more than a week. That text also contained many unrealistic points that countries could not possibly agree to.
In Dubai, the focus shifts from 2030 to 2035
Whether that will go better in Dubai depends on which assignment Al Jaber was put on the job with. This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action. “The United Arab Emirates approach the climate summit with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.”
Greenpeace Netherlands says it is not at ease. “This jeopardizes the credibility of the UN climate summit,” director Andy Palmen told NU.nl. He says that we must eventually phase out all fossil fuels, including oil. “There is no place for the fossil fuel industry in global climate negotiations.”
In Dubai, among other things, the emission targets will be discussed again. They must be much more ambitious if the Paris Agreement is to succeed and to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees.
Most countries have postponed the necessary tightening for the year 2030 for the past two years, so Dubai will once again be talking about the 2035 targets, regardless of whether the chairman speaks of a critical decade.
Image: ANP
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