UAE's Jaber, COP28 president, says he is listening, ready to engage (updated)

Grand Gulf Energy

07/02/2023 06:33

(Adds quotes, details)
    By Florence Tan
       BENGALURU, Feb 7 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates
climate envoy and designated COP28 president said on Tuesday his
country, which is due to host the summit later this year, was
approaching the task with humility, responsbility and urgency. 
    "It is not a conflict of interest. It is in our common
interest to have the energy industry working alongside everyone
on the solutions the world needs," Sultan al-Jaber, who is also
head of the state oil giant ADNOC, said at the India Energy Week
conference. "The UAE COP presidency is listening and ready to
engage." 
    Jaber's appointment to lead the climate summit this year
fuelled activists' worries that big industry was hijacking the
world's response to the global warming crisis. 
        The UAE, a major OPEC oil exporter, will be the second
Arab state to host the climate conference after Egypt in 2022. 
  
        The UAE and other Gulf energy producers have called for
a realistic energy transition in which hydrocarbons would keep a
role in energy security while making commitments to
decarbonisation. 
  
        "We cannot unplug the current energy system before we
have built the new one," said Jaber, who was the founding CEO of
Abu Dhabi renewable energy firm Masdar before becoming ADNOC
chief. 
  
        "We must minimise their carbon footprint, only invest
  
    in the least carbon intensive barrels and continue to reduce
their intensity," he added. 
  
        Jaber also said developing nations had seen little
justice so far when it comes to energy transition and pointed to
capital needed to fully operationalize the loss and damage fund
approved in COP27. 
  
        The deal to create the fund was hailed as a breakthrough
for developing country negotiators at the Egypt summit last year
but climate activists have since complained that the fund
remains empty of cash. 
  
        The Nov. 20-Dec. 12 COP28 will be the first global
stocktake since the landmark Paris Agreement in 2015. 
  
        On Tuesday, Jaber said that eliminating energy poverty
was essnetial alongside keeping the goal of capping global
warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius alive. 
  
 (Reporting by Florence Tan; Writing by Maha El Dahan; Editing
by Tom Hogue and Gerry Doyle)
 ((shilpa.jamkhandikar@thomsonreuters.com;))