Climate experts warn of fossil fuel tactics at COP28

CAIRO, Egypt — Oil-rich Gulf states have positioned themselves as both champions of climate innovation and guardians of fossil fuel interests -- a balancing act experts warn could derail action at COP28 in Dubai.

This year's United Nations climate summit is being chaired and hosted by the United Arab Emirates, a country dubbed "an oil company with a state attached" by one observer who requested anonymity so they could speak freely about the negotiations.

According to COP28 director general Majid Al Suwadi, "the UAE has been a leader when it comes to climate change".

"We have been doing our part," he said in September.

But one of the "inherent flaws of the COP system" is that national interests -- particularly the host's -- inevitably influence the outcome, said Ahmed El Droubi, international campaigns manager at Climate Action Network.

Indeed, the UAE has appointed Sultan Al Jaber, the head of state-owned oil company ADNOC, as COP president, drawing protests from environmentalists.

At COP27 in Egypt, where oil and gas lobbyists outnumbered most delegations, the final text included a last-minute provision to boost "low-emission energy".

That term includes natural gas, into which Egypt has invested billions of dollars in recent years.

In Dubai, activists expect the fight will be even harder, with the hydrocarbons industry intent on "not just delaying, denying, diverting meaningful climate action, but also greenwashing their polluting work", Farhana Sultana, professor of geography and the environment at Syracuse University, told AFP.

With time running out, the stakes are higher than ever at COP28.

To keep global warming at an average of 1.5C above pre-industrial temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions must drop 43 percent by 2030 from 2019 levels, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the UN's climate body.

"At the moment, we're not cutting anything, and the situation gets more urgent every year," Karim Elgendy, associate fellow at Chatham House, told AFP.

Jaber, who is also the UAE's climate envoy and co-founder of state-owned renewable energy company Masdar, is not the only oil industry veteran on the front lines of the climate fight.

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