Climate summit president doubts scientific consensus
Sultan Al-Jaber's role as host of the climate conference in Dubai is controversial, if only because he is also the head of the state oil company. A video clip from November is now revealing. According to a report, he believes that phasing out fossil fuels is unnecessary.
According to a report, the President of the World Climate Conference in Dubai, Sultan Al-Jaber, has questioned the scientific consensus that phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to achieve the international 1.5 degree target.
The Guardian and the Centre for Climate Reporting, citing their own information, reported that Al-Jaber said in a video call with UN representatives and others in November that there is "no science" to prove that phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared to pre-industrial times.
Al-Jaber is a controversial host of the climate conference because he is also the head of the state oil company. According to the report, he claimed in the video conference that development without the use of fossil fuels is not possible "if you don't want to catapult the world into the Stone Age".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on the other hand, had only emphasized at the beginning of the COP28 climate conference: "The science is clear. The 1.5-degree target is only possible if we stop burning fossil fuels for good." When asked by the Guardian, the COP28 presidency did not deny the statements, but went on to say that Al-Jaber was referring to the fact that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also assumes in its scenarios that fossil fuels will continue to play a role in the energy system of the future - albeit a smaller one.
Leading climate researcher Friederike Otto from Imperial College London told the Guardian: "If fossil fuels are not phased out at COP28, several million more people will find themselves in the firing line of climate change." This would be "a terrible legacy" for the conference in Dubai.
The global phase-out of coal, oil and gas is one of the most contentious issues in Dubai. The Emirates and several other countries want to continue to rely on fossil fuels and use technologies such as CO2 storage or capture. However, experts consider these to be scientifically controversial, very expensive and not feasible on a large scale in the near future.
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Despite the international consensus on the necessity of phasing out fossil fuels to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, Sultan Al-Jaber, the president of the Climate Conference taking place in Dubai, has questioned this viewpoint. During a video call in November, Al-Jaber, who is also the head of the state oil company, expressed his belief that development without the use of fossil fuels is not feasible without risking to "catapult the world into the Stone Age."
On the contrary, the Coal phase-out is a significant issue during the Climate conferences, and the global community is divided on this matter. While some countries like Dubai and others advocate for continued reliance on fossil fuels and employ technologies such as CO2 storage and capture, experts consider these solutions to be controversial, expensive, and not feasible on a large scale in the near future.
Source: www.ntv.de
