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Sultan al-Jaber, also head of the Emirati oil company, presented the goals he intends to put forward at the COP28, which opens in Dubai on November 30.
Posted on 7/13/2023 7:18 PM Updated on 7/13/2023 7:59 PM
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COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber on July 13, 2023 in Brussels (Belgium). (FRANCOIS WALSCHAERTS / AFP)
When asked when the world will burn up its last drop of oil, Sultan al-Jaber has a simple answer: when will there be enough low-carbon energy to replace it. “We cannot put an end to the current energy system before we have built the energy system of tomorrow,” the Emirati President of the most important international climate conference since the passage of the Paris Agreement replies in an interview with AFP on Thursday, July 13.
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While the IPCC had warned in its report a year earlier that “any further delay in global action (…) will mean that we miss the short window of opportunity we have to ensure a viable and sustainable future for all,” argues Sultan al-Jaber that it is unrealistic to stop using oil, gas and coal overnight, which are responsible for global warming. “We have to keep in mind that 800 million people today don’t have access to electricity,” he said, “we don’t want to create an energy crisis.”
A key venue for the private sector at Dubai COP
The man, who is also the head of the Emirati oil company, had just presented the list of goals he intends to bring to the COP28, which opened in Dubai on November 30, in a speech in Brussels to European ministers and the Chinese. To those who hope the world will demand an exit from oil and gas, he replies that reducing them is “inevitable” and “essential” but that he has “no magic wand”. “I don’t want to invent dates that aren’t justified,” he insists, affirming that no one can give an exact date for phasing out fossil fuels.
By revealing the goals of COP28, he showed that he wanted to innovate the annual conference genre. In particular, he wants to reconcile the commitments of States under the auspices of the United Nations with those of industry and the private sector, which he wants to give a prominent place in Dubai. He expects 70,000 participants, twice as many as at the largest COPs in the past. “We must do everything we can to keep the 1.5°C mark within reach,” stressed Sultan al-Jaber, referring to the maximum warming target set in the Paris Agreement.
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