COP28 President Denies Using Summit for Oil Deals

Carlos Fuller

And this year, COP28 began with controversy. The conference is led by the UAE’s presidency and Sultan Al Jaber. He is the chief executive officer of state oil giant ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.) So how can the C.E.O. of one of the largest oil company in the world lead COP28? That was the question many asked when the United Arab Emirates selected him as president. Would there be a conflict of interest? The appearance of it is bad enough. On Monday, the Centre for Climate Reporting published leaked memos which showed that discussions were held surrounding fossil fuel deals with fifteen countries prior to COP28. Al Jaber of course denies this. News Five asked Belize’s Chief Negotiator Ambassador Carlos Fuller and Executive Director for the 5Cs Doctor Coli Young about it today.

Ambassador Carlos Fuller, Belize’s Chief Negotiator

“I can see where some people are concerned about it, however my belief is that you need to have the persons who are dealing with it sit down with you because we could be meeting only environmentalists, green people and we could talk a lot but if the polluters are not in the room we are just talking to ourselves. Preaching to the choir. I think having them in the room, getting them to listen to what we are saying and really pushing on them to say look recognize that you have a limited resource and at some point it will end. You will need to start the transition now. I believe that the UAE is doing that already in getting ready for the future.”

Colin Young

Dr. Colin Young, Executive Director, CCCCC

“I think the principal behind the COP presidency is that there ought to be sort of independence of the process and that the COP presidency ushers, is a neutral arbitrary for the process. Clearly any position that undermines the ambitions that collectively that we are trying to work for, what we have been fighting for is obviously going to be a concern. We are here because global temperatures are rising fast and the impacts of such rise is having a detrimental impact on our countries. So we can’t countenance any actions that would decrease the level of ambitions knowing the speed and the urgency of which we are trying to decrease emissions. So that’s quite unfortunate if that is in fact the case. We would hope that we would see the kind of leadership we expect from every COP presidency in terms of championing collective action.”