Oil Company CEO Serving As COP28 President Reminds World Why Oil Company CEOs Shouldn't Be COP28 President
Oil Company CEO Serving As COP28 President Reminds World Why Oil Company CEOs Shouldn't Be COP28 President
Well at least they got THAT out in the open.
This year’s UN climate meeting, COP28, has been the focus of skepticism from climate smartasses ever since the decision was made to hold it in Dubai, and to name as president of the meeting Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). Golly, what could go wrong with an international climate meeting being run by a petrostate oil company CEO?
Discussions at the conference were eclipsed in the news by a Guardian report on remarks Al Jaber made two weeks ago, before the conference, in which he claimed that there was “no science” showing that fossil fuels must be phased out in order to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above preindustrial levels. While he was at it, he said that the world can’t stop burning fossil fuels “unless you want to take the world back into caves.” And for good measure, he not very subtly suggested that the former Irish President Mary Robinson, who’s now a prominent climate advocate, was some kind of crazy radical because she called for rapidly phasing out fossil fuels.
Here’s the relevant recording, queued up to the exchange between Robinson and Al Jaber during a November 21 online summit organized by “SHE Changes Climate.”
Robinson: We’re in an absolute crisis that is hurting women and children … the most vulnerable, more than anyone … and it’s because we have not yet committed to phasing out fossil fuel. That is the one decision that Cop28 can take and in many ways, because you’re head of Adnoc, you could actually take it with more credibility. […]
After a brief back-and-forth over whether “fast track” and “urgency” mean the same thing, Al Jaber, the CEO of a national oil company and president of a vital United Nations conference, testily brushed off Robinson’s concerns as mere semantics, stopping just short of calling her hysterical:
Al Jaber: We can always play with words here. You are a good politician and you know how to use words better than I do. I am a businessman; I am centered around delivery and actions. […]
I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. I am here factual and I respect the science. And there is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.
Al Jaber added that he did indeed see 1.5 degrees C as “my North Star,” and that “a phase down, and a phase-out, of fossil fuel, in my view, is inevitable. It is essential. But we need to be serious and pragmatic about it,” with the unspoken suggestion that talk of a rapid transition away from fossil fuels is neither serious nor pragmatic. At 2001’s COP26 meeting in Glasgow, the term “phase down” was substituted for “phase out” at the insistence of Saudi Arabia, Russia, and other big fossil fuel producers. Like St. Augustine of Hippo, they pray for chastity and continence, but not yet.
Al Jaber disputed Robinson’s charge that his company was planning greater investments in fossil fuels, interrupting her and saying, “Ma’am, you’re reading your own media, which is biased and wrong. I am telling you I am the man in charge, and it is wrong, ma’am, you need to listen to me. Please.”
A very manly man, at that, who will not be challenged by an emotional woman. Then it was back to Al Jaber’s earlier contention that we must keep burning fossil fuels:
Al Jaber: You’re asking for a phase-out of fossil fuels. Please, help me, show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves. Show me.
Then Al Jaber wanted to get pissy about the contention that women need a greater role in discussions of climate, changing the topic and pointing out that the parliament of the UAE is 50 percent women, and so, he told Robinson, “I’m sorry, get your facts straight, ma’am.” Not that Robinson had said anything about women in the UAE, but wow, if she had, he really woulda had her!
To be clear, Al Jaber isn’t following the science. Remember, the recent National Climate Assessment very explicitly calls for a swift transition to low-carbon energy, noting that the savings in healthcare costs alone will be greater than the costs of transitioning. And the UN’s IPCC has determined that the world must cut fossil fuel emissions by 43 percent of 2019 levels by the end of the current decade if we’re to have any hope of keeping warming to 1.5 degrees. Dr. Al Jaber should read some of those UN reports we bet!
At COP28 on Friday, UN Secretary General António Guterres sure seemed to think completely phasing out fossil fuels was both necessary and practical, saying in his address to the meeting,
“The science is clear: The 1.5-degree limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce. Not abate. Phaseout. With a clear time frame aligned with 1.5 degrees.”
But then, that’s probably just because he was all emotional and stuff too. The Guardian also notes that Bill Hare, chief executive of Climate Analytics, called out the line about making everyone live in caves as “the oldest of fossil fuel industry tropes: It’s verging on climate denial.” Happily for the freaking president of the freaking UN climate meeting, Hare added that there is indeed a “roadmap” for phasing out fossil fuels without making anyone live in a cave, unless they’re into that kind of thing:
“Anyone who cares can find that in the International Energy Agency’s latest net zero emissions scenario, which says there cannot be any new fossil fuel development. The science is absolutely clear [and] that absolutely means a phase-out by mid-century, which will enhance the lives of all of humanity.”
On Monday, Al Jaber tried to do damage control, insisting that the stuff we all heard him say on audio wasn’t at all what he meant, because didn’t he also say that “phasing down” thing, and after all, he’s an economist and an engineer!
“I respect the science in everything I do,” he said. […]
He insisted that he has called many times for a phaseout of fossil fuels and said that his efforts to champion climate change had been ignored by the media.
Mr. Al Jaber appeared aggrieved, saying “one statement, taken out of context with misrepresentation and misinterpretation that gets maximum coverage.”
Yeah, we know how it is, guy. You fuck just one oil well, and everyone calls you “Oilfucker.”
Also, it was two stupid statements, Oilfucker.
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I was very cranky yesterday and want to share something less nihilist.
Here is a WaPo report on how important it it to get people to change their behavior. It discusses how small things, like Biden riding his bike, changes norms and thus people's behaviors. Maybe it was linked here too, but anyway, hope is a thing worth holding:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/12/05/improve-sustainability-help-climate-change/
Between this shit, a UN employee actually holding a hostage in Gaza, and Iran heading the human rights council, I have lost all respect for an institution I once thought fabulous.
It is just a shit stain and a corrupt cousins theme park.