The Times reports on what observers had been concerned about at the time of Cop28, namely that the president of Cop28, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, was doing fossil fuel deals behind the glossy presentations. He was allegedly presenting to the world the false image that our leaders were leading the planet to a better place through a reduction in fossil fuel burning.
It’s example of extreme cynicism and confirms what climate change activists such as Greta Thunberg have been wary and concerned about the so long. Greta Thunberg, at the very outset, hit the nail on the head by saying that the world’s leaders are letting down the citizens of this planet. They are not taking climate change seriously enough. This report confirms her assessment.
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber leads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and at the same time he was President of Cop28, an unlikely merging of two objectives.
And The Times reports that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company “either negotiated or closed oil deals with 12 countries, including the UK, while its chief executive, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, was President of the Cop28 climate conference, according to a report by the campaign group Global Witness”.
The investigators gathered evidence which they claim demonstrates that the United Arab Emirates’ climate change negotiators had used the gathering of world leaders to discuss fossil fuel deals.
The report states that al-Jaber was scheduled to meet with Mark Carney, the former governor of the Bank of England at a diplomatic summit in Paris but instead he spent “almost the entire afternoon talking with oil and gas representatives at the conference trying to make deals.”
These deals could lead to the sale of the equivalent of 5.54 billion barrels of oil by 2050. The burning of this oil would release 1.8 billion tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere which is about one-twentieth of the amount released worldwide by the burning of fossil fuels in 2022.
Global Witness said that the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company closed 13 deals worth £21.5 billion in 2024. Notes have been leaked to the BBC and to the Centre for Climate Reporting which suggested that the UAE climate negotiators had intended to discuss fossil fuel deals with no less than 16 countries during meetings in the run-up to Cop28.
At the time, al-Jaber described the allegations against him as “false, not true, incorrect and not accurate”. He added that “Every meeting I have conducted with every government or any other stakeholder has always been centred around one thing and one thing only: that is my Cop28 agenda”.
A senior investigator at Global Witness, Patrick Galey, said: “Make no mistake, Cop28 was hijacked by the interests of the fossil fuel industry, who weren’t content simply to block or stall genuine climate policy but used the opportunity to pursue more climate-wrecking oil and gas deals. As depressing as it is dystopian, climate talks must never be allowed to create more climate chaos.”
The findings are described as “misleading and inaccurate” by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.
RELATED: Destroying our planet is a sin says the Pope
