Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of Abu Dhabi’s National Oil Company
A Conflict of Interest at the
COP 28 Climate Conference
The Climate Reality Project
(January 19, 2023) — It’s a simple fact: You can’t move forward and backward at the same time.
That’s why the announcement the UN’s COP 28 climate conference in November will be led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — the world’s 12th-biggest oil company by production — is so alarming.
We’re overdue for a global commitment to phase out fossil fuels, and we can’t trust an oil CEO to effectively secure that commitment. It’s that simple.
And it’s why we’re joining Climate Action Network International to demand he resign from his role as Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO to be an effective leader at COP 28. Join us and take action now.
Last week’s announcement that the UN’s COP 28 climate conference will be led by the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — the world’s 12th-biggest oil company by production — is very alarming.
It would be an almost laughable conflict of interest, if the stakes weren’t so high.
Al Gore criticises choice of an oil executive to chair COP.
Our founder and chairman, former US Vice President Al Gore, spoke out at the World Economic Forum yesterday:
“What do I say to these young activists that I train around the world when they come to me and they say ‘Are you okay with putting the CEO of one of the largest oil companies in the world in as president of the COP? Is that really okay?’
“…The appearance of a conflict of interest undermines confidence at a time when climate activists around the world…have come to the conclusion that the people in authority are not doing their job. There’s a lot of ‘blah blah blah’, as Greta says. There are a lot of words, and there are some meaningful commitments, but we are still failing badly…In the last COP we were not allowed to even discuss scaling down oil and gas…Are we going to be able to discuss scaling down oil and gas in the next COP? Or putting the oil industry in charge of the COP, is that going to tell young people around the world, ‘we’ve just decided to not even disguise it anymore’.”
He’s right. We’re overdue for a global commitment to phase out fossil fuels, and we can’t trust an oil CEO to effectively secure that commitment while running an oil company. It’s that simple.
Note: A dangerous new plan called the Willow project could single-handedly derail all our climate goals in the US — releasing over 275 million metric tons of climate-warming greenhouse gasses and wreaking havoc on Alaska’s struggling ecosystem.
THE LETTER
Dear UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs
We were deeply alarmed to hear that Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company — the world’s 12th biggest oil company by production — has been named COP president for the upcoming COP 28 talks in the United Arab Emirates.
There is no plausible way an executive with professional and financial interests in the fossil fuels destroying our climate can credibly lead global efforts to transition away from oil, coal, and gas.
We’re asking for him to resign from his role as Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO to be an effective leader at COP 28.
With oil interests at the helm, COP 28 threatens to become a sham event and a waste of valuable time we simply do not have in working to quickly move the world away from dangerous fossil fuels.
The very credibility of COP 28 is at stake here. The future of our shared home is at stake here. We call on you to ensure Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber resign from his role as Abu Dhabi National Oil Company CEO immediately.
