An oil man leads the climate conference in Dubai

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UAE’s largest oil company will chair the COP28 International Climate Conference. The conference is in Dubai at the end of this year.

Sultan Al Jaber (49 years old) has been the climate envoy for the UAE for many years, and also heads the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, which is currently pumping about 4 million barrels of crude oil per day. The company has expressed its ambition to achieve 5 million. He also heads Masdar, a multinational company active in the field of sustainable energy in dozens of countries.

“This will be a crucial year for climate action,” Al Jaber said, in a statement to the official Emirates News Agency, highlighting the country’s “strong sense of responsibility and great ambition” when it comes to climate change.

A spokesperson for the activist Climate Action Network called Al Jaber’s appointment “an unprecedented and troubling case of conflicts of interest. There should be no place for polluters at the climate conference.”

Each year, the country hosting the climate conference selects the mediator, and the participating countries usually agree. It is very important, according to experts, that he leads the talks: Briton Alok Sharma received good feedback for his energetic and ambitious performance – according to those present – in Glasgow, in 2021. A year later, Egyptian Minister Shoukry’s performance in Sharm el-Sheikh was criticized as chaotic and opaque.

The 28th edition of the COP Climate Conference (“Conference of the Parties”) will be held in Dubai this year from 30 November.