After years of insinuating itself into the COP course of, a petrostate will host the COP28 local weather talks later this 12 months, and an oil firm CEO would be the presiding president.

This 12 months’s Convention of the Events (COP28) will happen from November 30 – December 12 within the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE is an OPEC member and the seventh-largest oil producer on the earth with the seventh-largest oil reserves. Will probably be hosted by president-designate Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the CEO of Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm (ADNOC).

Whereas the fossil gas business has been energetic in the course of the three-decades-long COP course of, that is solely the third time that the local weather conferences are happening in a petrostate, and it’s the first time that the president-designate is the CEO of an oil firm.  That is significantly egregious as a result of this 12 months’s COP is the primary stocktake of world emissions and as such it’s crucial convention of the events for the reason that landmark Paris Settlement at COP21.  

Regardless of being the first reason for climate-causing emissions, the fossil gas business has insidiously insinuated itself into each characteristic and side of private and non-private life in addition to civil society. Their affect even extends to the worldwide treaty to restrict emissions often called the United Nations Framework Conference on Local weather Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC secretariat helps the annual UN-sponsored COP course of.  Though these talks have secured historic world local weather agreements, they’ve been hampered by the affect of the fossil gas business.

In response to leaks reported by Greenpeace, the fossil gas business has succeeded in watering down the wording of the Intergovernmental Panel on Local weather Change (IPCC) local weather assessments. OPEC chief Saudi Arabia efficiently lobbied to take away references to phasing out fossil fuels within the IPCC’s 2022 report.

Whereas the oil and fuel business has been ever current in the course of the three-decades-long COP course of, that presence is rising lately. At COP25 there have been an estimated 340 fossil gas delegates, At COP26, there have been greater than 500, and at COP27 there have been 637. Fossil fuels have been heart stage at COP26, the place, for the primary time, all governments acknowledged the causal position of hydrocarbons because the main driver of local weather change. Nonetheless, delegates have been cajoled into altering the language on coal within the closing textual content from “phasing out” to “phasing down” after China and India objected.

Regardless of the historic settlement on Loss and Harm at COP27, the fossil gas business killed efforts to reign in oil and fuel regardless that a broad coalition of greater than 80 international locations, together with the EU, supported an Indian proposal to section down all fossil fuels. As a member of the Arab Group, the UAE condoned Saudi Arabia’s efforts to kill the proposal, whereas on the similar time, selling ADNOC.

A brand new report from Local weather Motion In opposition to Disinformation (CAAD) reveals that entities linked to the fossil gas business spent $4 million on 3,781 Meta disinformation adverts previous to COP27. The UAE despatched 1,000 delegates to COP27, by far the biggest nation delegation to ever attend the local weather talks. These delegates promoted the UAE’S position because the 2023 COP host. The Emirati delegation had greater than 70 members linked to grease and fuel firms which was the biggest variety of UAE fossil gas lobbyists ever to attend the local weather conferences. ADNOC was additionally current within the UAE’s onsite pavilion. Greater than a 12 months earlier than the beginning of COP28 the UAE additionally employed PR corporations and lobbying companies to painting itself as an environmental champion.

The UAE is working exhausting to enhance its picture, however the picture they’re searching for to advertise doesn’t match the fact on the bottom. Regardless of well-planned sound bites, the UAE is a petrostate that can use COP28 as a platform to justify the continuing extraction of hydrocarbons.  

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Fossil Fuels Have No Place at Local weather Talks