OPEC Backs UAE COP28 Presidency

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) on Monday voiced “unwavering support” for the boss of Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC) as president of the United Nations’ main climate forum, amid opposition over the rights situation in the United Arab Emirates.

The Conference of the Parties (COP), the decision-making body of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, takes place in Dubai from November 30 to December 12 with ADNOC chief executive Ahmed Al-Jaber designated by the host country to lead the 28th meeting.

Key oil producer UAE has billed the gathering as a platform to advance needed ambitious measures to rein in climate change. But rights groups have expressed concern the monarchy-controlled government could use it to gloss over the state of individual freedoms in the Middle Eastern nation.

The OPEC, of which the UAE is among the 13 members, said in a statement Monday: “The UAE is a recognized global leader in tackling the challenges related to energy, climate change and sustainable development. Not only in words, but also in its actions with major investments into the development and deployment of renewables and technologies focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions”.

It said Al-Jaber, who also chairs renewables company Masdar, has the track record to steer “a COP of action and results”.

“OPEC believes that COP28 needs every voice at the table to achieve practical, pragmatic and realistic solutions”, the group said, without directly addressing opposition to the UAE’s COP28 presidency.

A joint statement by 31 rights campaigners including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch published May 1 warned “the UAE government could try to use its COP28 presidency to cynically promote an image of openness and tolerance, despite the UAE’s failure to respect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly”.

Al-Jaber, though, got backing from USA Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry.

“I think that Dr. Sultan Al-Jaber is a terrific choice because he is the head of the company [ADNOC]. That company knows it needs to transition”, the ex-secretary of state told The Associated Press in an interview published January 17.

“He knows, and the leadership of the UAE is committed to transitioning”.

Al-Jaber told an international climate dialogue earlier May a key agenda in COP28 will be the launch of a so-called Global Stocktake, a platform to measure the world’s progress against the targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The agreement adopted at COP21 aims to prevent the global average temperature from going two degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Climate action “requires our honesty and our collective effort”, he told the May 2-3 Petersburg Climate Dialogue in Berlin. “We can only succeed through genuine and true partnership, through real collaboration and shared purpose”.

“We have just passed the seven-year mark since the adoption of the Paris Agreement with just seven years to go to 2030. That is seven years to reduce emissions by 43 percent and keep the ambitions and objectives of the Paris Agreement alive”, Al-Jaber added. “This is the year of the first Global Stocktake that will measure progress since Paris. The most recent IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report has already made it crystal clear that we are all way off-track”.

He stressed the need for funding commitments, including for developing countries, saying: “The poorest nations make up over half of the world’s population yet account for just 12 percent of global emissions, when 800 million people have no access to energy at all”.

To contact the author, email jov.onsat@rigzone.com