Climate conference chief used meeting for oil deals

Climate conference chief used meeting for oil deals

The United Arab Emirates, of all places, is hosting this year's climate summit. What sounds strange is even more dubious on closer inspection. According to the BBC, the host has used preparatory meetings for business interests.

Climate conferences are not primarily about the climate. The central topic at the annual meetings under the umbrella of the UN is ultimately the distribution of prosperity - because when CO2 emissions are reduced, there are winners and losers. For countries such as Bangladesh or Fiji, limiting global warming is vital for survival. There are also a whole range of countries whose governments have realized that something needs to be done, but who are not prepared to harm their domestic economies. And then there is the group of blockers.

This group includes countries that are particularly dependent on burning fossil fuels - countries that export gas and oil. At the upcoming climate summit in Dubai, this even applies to the host. And that's not all: the Minister of Industry and Technology of the United Arab Emirates, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, apparently wants to use his role as chairman of the conference to conclude oil and gas agreements.

This is reported by the BBC, which can cite a whole range of sources for its report. A quick google is enough to find Dubai a curious host country. Around 30 percent of the UAE's gross domestic product still comes from oil and gas production. According to estimates, the Emirates has the seventh largest proven oil and natural gas reserves in the world. Although the country wants to reduce its dependence on these exports, it is also aiming to exploit so-called unconventional gas resources, which are more difficult to extract.

The minister is the head of the oil company

In other words, the United Arab Emirates has no interest in ending the fossil age. This is probably also true for al-Jaber personally. He is not only a minister, but also the head of the UAE's state oil company, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the twelfth largest oil company in the world. If there are any conflicts of interest, al-Jaber has resolved them for himself: he wants to discuss fossil fuel contracts with 15 nations.

The BBC was able to view documents drawn up for al-Jaber by the UAE team preparing for the climate conference. In UN jargon, the summit is called "COP28"; the abbreviation stands for the 28th meeting of the "Conference of the Parties", the conference of the parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

LNG for Germany

According to the BBC, the documents show that the UAE's COP28 team had prepared meetings with at least 27 foreign governments in the run-up to the summit. Meetings between the host conference leader and key participating countries are common before climate summits. However, the aim is not usually to initiate bilateral business deals, but to explore the extent to which countries are willing to commit to ambitious efforts.

For the meeting with China, the team suggests pointing out that ADNOC is "willing to jointly assess international opportunities for LNG in Mozambique, Canada and Australia". A Colombian minister is to be told that ADNOC could support the South American country in developing its fossil fuel resources. According to the BBC, there are also topics of discussion for Germany that indicate that ADNOC would like to cooperate with the Federal Republic on the development of fossil fuel projects. Specifically, Germany should be told: "We are ready to continue our LNG supplies." According to the BBC, the preparatory meeting was hosted by al-Jaber.

COP28 starts this Thursday and is scheduled to end on December 12. In addition to the British King Charles III, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also expected in Dubai this Friday and Saturday. Climate conferences are supposed to be about how the world can limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, as agreed in Paris. This would require a significant reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases such as CO2 - the gas that is produced when fossil fuels are burned.

"Private meetings are private"

According to the BBC, the UAE preparation team did not deny that the meetings had been used for business discussions. "Private meetings are private," the team said.

The BBC writes that it is unclear whether and how often the proposed discussion points were actually raised at the preparatory meetings. "We know that on at least one occasion a country followed up on the commercial discussions raised at a meeting organized by the UAE COP28 team," the British broadcaster said. However, twelve countries had told the BBC that either no discussions on commercial activities had taken place at the meetings or that there had been no meeting.

Greenpeace Germany boss Martin Kaiser had already criticized before the latest publications that with al-Jaber as chairman of the COP, the "buck had been passed to the gardener". Al-Jaber himself rejected the accusation that he was a Trojan horse for the oil industry. "The people who accuse me of having a conflict of interest don't know my background," he told the AFP news agency in July. He had spent a large part of his career working on sustainability.

In fact, al-Jaber founded Masdar, the state-owned renewable energy company, in 2006 and continues to sit on the Masdar board of directors. But does that exonerate the minister? According to the BBC, al-Jaber also represented Masdar's business interests at preparatory meetings. At a meeting with British representatives, al-Jaber was supposed to propose expanding a wind farm off the Norfolk coast in which Masdar is involved. However, this meeting did not take place.

1. Despite the United Arab Emirates' commitment to hosting the climate summit in Dubai, concerns surrounding potential conflicts of interest arise, as the country's Minister of Industry and Technology, Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber, also leads the nation's largest oil company, ADNOC.
2. Amidst allegations of utilizing climate conferences for oil and gas deals, the upcoming COP28 in Dubai, chaired by al-Jaber, has been under scrutiny for its intentions, with reports linking the minister to arranging bilateral meetings for commercial discussions with several countries, including Germany.

Source: www.ntv.de