The United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday named a veteran technocrat with experience in renewable energies and the oil business as the president of the upcoming UN climate negotiations in Dubai, highlighting the balancing act ahead for the oil-exporting nation.
Authorities named Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, a trusted confidant of UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and chief executive officer of state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.
The Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency made the announcement.
Photo: AFP
The company pumps about 4 million barrels of oil a day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily.
Al-Jaber also has experience in renewables as well. He led a once-ambitious project to have a US$22 billion “carbon-neutral” city on Abu Dhabi’s outskirts that later pared back its ambitions after the global financial crisis that struck the UAE hard beginning in 2008.
Even today, he serves as the chairman of Masdar, a clean-energy company that grew out of the project that now operates in more than 40 countries.
“Sultan al-Jaber has the credentials and background to lean into trends that are already ongoing,” said Ryan Bohl, an Austin, Texas-based Middle East analyst for a risk-intelligence firm called the RANE Network. “Him being an oilman, I don’t think that will be that big of a risk for him.”
“This will be a critical year in a critical decade for climate action,” WAM quoted al-Jaber as saying. “The UAE is approaching COP28 with a strong sense of responsibility and the highest possible level of ambition.”
“We will bring a pragmatic, realistic and solutions-oriented approach that delivers transformative progress for climate and for low-carbon economic growth,” he said.
Each year, the country hosting the UN negotiations known as the Conference of the Parties — where COP gets its name — nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat, as the talks can be incredibly difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests.
The nominee’s position as “COP president” is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections.
The caliber of COP presidents has varied. Observers widely saw Britain’s Alok Sharma as energetic and committed to achieving an ambitious result. Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry faced criticism by some participants for the chaotic and at times nontransparent way he presided over last year’s meeting.
Al-Jaber’s planned role as president would see the technocrat firmly in the world’s spotlight for the first time. While not a member of Abu Dhabi’s ruling Al Nahyan family, he has become crucial in running the UAE’s energy policies.
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