The President of COP 28 in Abu Dhabi denies that the conference hides oil and gas deals
COP28 President Sultan Al Jaber, who is also CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), denied reports on Wednesday of plans to use the Dubai climate summit to promote oil deals. An accusation which however highlights how the climate conference is rapidly losing prestige and meaning.
Al Jaber's COP28 presidency has attracted controversy in recent months. He is the first CEO appointed so far to chair a climate summit. But he is also the CEO of the national oil company of OPEC's third largest producer, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Earlier this week, the BBC and several other media outlets reported that the UAE planned to use its role as host of climate talks to strike new oil and gas deals. The BBC cited leaked briefing documents obtained by independent journalists at the Center for Climate Reporting working alongside the BBC. Such documents would be prepared by the UAE COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments during the climate summit that Dubai will host from November 30 to December 12.
The UAE COP28 said on Wednesday: “We are aware of a number of press releases purporting to have been issued by COP28 and other entities, relating to the leadership roles of the COP President, which have been published on some accounts digital and released to members of the media.”
“This press release was not issued by the COP28 team, has no basis in truth and must be completely ignored as fake news,” COP28 UAE added.
“As the COP President said in today's press conference: “This is an attempt to undermine the work of the COP28 Presidency.”
Speaking at a press conference on the eve of the climate summit, Al Jaber told reporters, as reported by CNN,
“These allegations are false, untrue, incorrect and inaccurate.” “I promise you, I have never seen these talking points referred to, or used such talking points in my discussions,” Jaber said with righteous disdain.
However, it remains curious to organize the conference that should limit fossil fuels in countries that make their wealth from fossil fuels, without considering that a denial often sounds like a second confirmation
Thanks to our Telegram channel you can stay updated on the publication of new Economic Scenarios articles.
The article Abu Dhabi COP 28 President denies conference hides oil and gas deals comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-presidente-del-cop-28-di-abu-dhabi-smentisce-che-la-conferenza-nasconda-affari-su-petrolio-e-gas/ on Thu, 30 Nov 2023 07:00:54 +0000.