Sultan Al Jaber, the oil executive who is leading the COP28\u00a0climate\u00a0summit in Dubai, sent shockwaves through the gathering by claiming in the days before the UN-backed talks that there is \u201cno science\u201d that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep\u00a0global warming\u00a0under a critical threshold \u2014 comments Al Jaber said were misinterpreted. <\/p>\n
Al Jaber held a surprise news conference Monday where he fiercely defended his commitment to climate science, after an increasing number of scientists and advocates expressed alarm at the comments and concern for the direction of the talks. <\/p>\n
The future role of fossil fuels is one of the most controversial issues countries are grappling with at the COP28 climate summit. While some are pushing for a \u201cphase-out,\u201d others are calling for the weaker language of a \u201cphase-down.\u201d Scientific reports have shown that fossil fuels must be rapidly slashed to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius\ufeff \u2014 the goal of the Paris climate agreement, and a threshold above which scientists warn it will be more difficult for humans and ecosystems to adapt. <\/p>\n
In his response, Al Jaber told Robinson, \u201cthere is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says the phase-out of fossil fuel is what\u2019s going to achieve 1.5.\u201d He said he had expected to come to the She Changes Climate meeting to have a \u201csober and mature conversation\u201d and was not \u201csigning up to any discussion that is alarmist.\u201d <\/p>\n
He continued that the 1.5-degree goal was his \u201cnorth star,\u201d and a phase-down and phase-out of fossil fuel was \u201cinevitable\u201d but \u201cwe need to be real, serious and pragmatic about it.\u201d <\/p>\n
In an increasingly fractious series of responses to Robinson pushing him on the point, Al Jaber asked her \u201cplease, help me, show me a roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuels that will allow for sustainable socio-economic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.\u201d <\/p>\n
Al Jaber\u2019s presidency of the COP28 summit has been controversial. The Emirati businessman is the UAE\u2019s climate envoy and chairs the board of directors of its renewables company, but he also heads the <\/strong>state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). <\/p>\n Al Jaber told reporters Monday, \u201cI have always been very clear on the fact that we are making sure that everything we do is centered around the science.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cI honestly think there is some confusion out there, and misrepresentation and misinterpretation,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI have said over and over that the phase down and the phase out of fossil fuel is inevitable. In fact, it is essential \u2026 it needs to be orderly, fair, just and responsible.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThe COP President is clear that phasing down and out of fossil fuels is inevitable and that we must keep 1.5C within reach,\u201d adding, \u201cwe are excited with the progress we have made so far and for the delivery of an ambitious (global stocktake) decision. Attempts to undermine this will not soften our resolve.\u201d <\/p>\n Fossil fuels are the main driver of the climate crisis and as the world continues to burn oil, coal and gas, global temperatures are soaring to unprecedented levels. This year has seen record global heat, which has driven deadly extreme weather events. <\/p>\n Fossil fuel production in 2030 is expected to be more than double what would be necessary to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees, a recent report from several scientific institutions, including the UN Environment Programme, found. That report used scenarios laid out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the International Energy Agency (IEA) to reach its conclusion. <\/p>\n Carbon capture refers to\u00a0a set of techniques\u00a0that aim to remove carbon pollution from the the air and to capture what\u2019s being produced from power plants and other polluting facilities. While some argue carbon capture will be an important tool for reducing planet-heating pollution, others argue these technologies are expensive, unproven at scale and a distraction from policies to cut fossil fuel use. <\/p>\n Scientists and climate groups heavily criticized Al Jaber\u2019s comments. <\/p>\n Romain Ioualalen, global policy lead at non-profit Oil Change International, said in a statement Al Jaber\u2019s statements during the panel discussion were \u201calarming,\u201d \u201cscience-denying\u201d and \u201craise deep concerns about the Presidency\u2019s capacity to lead the UN climate talks.\u201d <\/p>\n Joeri Rogelj, a climate professor at Imperial College London, said he strongly recommended Al Jaber revisit the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. <\/p>\n \u201cThat report, approved unanimously by 195 countries including the UAE, shows a variety of ways to limit warming to 1.5\u00b0C \u2014 all of which indicate a de facto phase out of fossil fuels in the first half of the century. Will that take the world back to the caves? Absolutely not,\u201d he said in a statement. <\/p>\n Mohamed Adow, director of climate think tank Power Shift Africa, said Al Jaber\u2019s remarks were a \u201cwake up call\u201d to the world and COP28 negotiators. \u201cThey are not going to get any help from the COP Presidency in delivering a strong outcome on a fossil fuel phase out,\u201d he said in a\u00a0statement. <\/p>\n This COP summit will conclude the first global stocktake, where countries will assess their progress on climate action progress and work out how to get the world on track to limiting catastrophic global warming. <\/p>\n This story has been updated with additional information.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n Sultan Al Jaber, the oil executive who is leading the COP28\u00a0climate\u00a0summit in Dubai, sent shockwaves through the gathering by claiming in the days before the UN-backed talks that there is \u201cno science\u201d that says phasing out fossil fuels is necessary to keep\u00a0global warming\u00a0under a critical threshold \u2014 comments Al Jaber said were misinterpreted. Al Jaber <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":12481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}