UAE intended to use COP28 climate summit to push oil deals
UAE intended to use COP28 climate summit to push oil deals
This story was produced by our colleagues at the BBC.
The United Arab Emirates is hosting the United Nations’ annual climate conference, known as COP28. There’s some irony there, as the UAE is among the world’s top 10 oil producers.
But according to leaked documents obtained by the BBC, the UAE was planning to use meetings with foreign governments surrounding the summit to discuss new business opportunities for the UAE’s state oil and gas company.
Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, appointed the president of COP28 by the UAE, was building ambition at a meeting of environment ministers from around the world last month.
“Now more than ever, we need to unite on climate and deliver a clear message of hope,” he said. “And we must deliver in Dubai.”
Jaber is also the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the UAE’s huge state oil company, and its renewable energy business, Masdar.
But briefing documents prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team ahead of meetings with 27 foreign governments show Jaber was briefed to discuss business deals for the state firms. The documents were obtained by the BBC in conjunction with independent journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting.
The briefings propose telling China that the UAE’s oil company is “willing to jointly evaluate liquefied natural gas opportunities” in Mozambique, Canada and Australia. The Brazilian environment minister was to be asked to help with the UAE’s multibillion-dollar bid for a Brazilian oil and gas processing company.
Now, attempting to do business deals — especially oil and gas deals — during the COP process appears to be a serious breach of the standards the U.N. expects of a COP president. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the U.N. body behind the climate summit, told the BBC that a COP president should be impartial and act without bias or self-interest.
“This looks breathtakingly hypocritical,” said Michael Jacobs, a professor at the University of Sheffield University and an expert on U.N. climate politics. “But I actually think it’s worse than that, because the UAE at the moment is the custodian of the United Nations process aimed at reducing global emissions. And yet in the very same meetings, it’s actually trying to do side deals, which will increase global emissions.”
On at least one occasion, a country followed up on a potential fossil fuel deal brought up in a meeting arranged by the UAE’s COP28 team. But 12 countries have told the BBC there was either no discussion of commercial activities during meetings or a meeting did not take place.
“Our team is fully independent. We are very confident that our team is focused on delivering COP28, is focused on delivering great results that we need to do,” said director-general of the UAE’s COP28 team Majid al-Suwaidi at a press conference in Abu Dhabi last month.
The COP28 team did not deny using climate meetings to discuss fossil fuel deals. It told the BBC “private meetings are private” and does not comment on them.
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