The United Arab Emirates planned to use meetings about the COP28 climate summit it is hosting later this week to pitch oil and gas deals to foreign governments, according to leaked briefing documents obtained by the non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting alongside the BBC.
Sultan al-Jaber, president-designate of this year’s UN climate summit, has called for a “phaseout” of fossil fuels globally. But his position as head of COP28 while also leading the UAE state oil company Adnoc has attracted criticism from politicians in the US and Europe because of the perceived conflict of interest.
Documents posted online on Monday appear to show plans for Jaber to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 countries including China, Brazil, Germany and Egypt. The documents have not been verified by the Financial Times. A spokesperson for COP said the documents were “inaccurate”, “unverified” and had not been used by COP28 in meetings.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the summit, did not reply to a request for comment. Its website states that the role of the COP president, who hosts the climate change conference every year, includes “raising ambition to tackle climate change internationally”.
Under the UNFCCC’s code of conduct, elected and appointed officers should not use their role to seek private gain or advantage, or to represent the interests of other groups. Draft rules of procedure that have not yet been adopted by the COP state that “the President shall participate in the session in that capacity and shall not simultaneously exercise the rights of a representative of a Party”.
Amnesty International’s climate adviser Ann Harrison called for Jaber’s resignation as head of COP28. “Documents suggesting he was briefed to advance business interests in COP meetings only fuel our concerns that COP28 has been comprehensively captured by the fossil fuel lobby to serve its vested interests,” she said, adding it looked “ever more like a fox is guarding the hen house”.
“The COP presidency is meant to rise above conflicts of interest and should focus instead on making this summit count on the key issues,” Laurence Tubiana, one of the architects of the landmark Paris agreement, told the FT.
The success of the climate summit would be judged on the negotiated text, she added, and whether this includes commitments to phase out fossil fuels and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy.
The US has previously argued that Jaber could play an important role in driving change in the oil industry.
US President Joe Biden is not planning to go to the summit, US officials said on Sunday, but his top climate advisers, including former secretary of state John Kerry and former White House chief of staff John Podesta, are expected to attend.
Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous will attend COP28 as head of the country’s delegation, pro-government newspaper Al-Watan reported on Monday. Arnous’ name also appears on a list of speakers for the summit previously published by the UN.
Earlier this year the UAE invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend as part of an “inclusive COP process”, and against the backdrop of increasing normalisation of ties between the Syrian government and other Middle Eastern states. It would have been Assad’s first global summit since 2011 featuring western governments who opposed him in Syria’s bloody civil war.
COP28 is likely to host a fierce debate over emerging economies’ continued reliance on polluting fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas.
Almost 200 countries committed at COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow to “phase down” — rather than “phase out” — coal power, but use of the fossil fuel has barely declined, especially as energy demand expands in countries including China, India and Indonesia.
Biden’s likely absence from COP28 had been expected as he grapples with war in the Middle East and prepares for a re-election campaign in 2024.
But the apparent decision to skip the gathering of world leaders is still striking given that Biden has placed the fight against climate change high on his domestic and international agendas and attended the last two climate summits in the UK and Egypt.
The White House said on Monday: “Since day one, President Biden has led and delivered on the most ambitious climate agenda in history, both at home and abroad. He secured the largest climate investment ever, putting the US on a path to cut climate pollution in half by 2030, protected more than 21mn acres of public lands and waters, and he continues to rally world leaders to raise their collective climate ambition.”
Pope Francis, who is 86, said at the weekend that he still planned to attend COP28 in person despite suffering from a lung inflammation that stopped him from delivering his usual Sunday blessing in person from St Peter’s Square in Rome.
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