[1/2]A person walks past a “#COP28” sign during the Changemaker Majlis, a one-day CEO-level thought leadership workshop on climate action, on October 1, 2023 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Portal/Amr Alfiky acquires license rights
- Nations remain divided over fossil fuels ahead of COP28
- Jaber, from the United Arab Emirates, believes in the role of oil and gas in the climate debate
- Decarbonization promises from major industry hoped for before the summit
ABU DHABI, Oct 1 (Portal) – Chiefs of major oil and gas companies held talks with heavy industry bosses in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday to make a firm commitment to cutting carbon emissions ahead of the United Nations climate summit next month to agree.
The COP28 summit is scheduled to take place in Dubai between November 30th and December 12th.
This is seen as a crucial opportunity for governments to accelerate action to limit global warming. Reports so far show that countries are not on track to meet their promises to limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“What we have done today is something completely unprecedented in the COP process to bring together both the demand and supply sides in terms of emissions,” COP28 CEO Adnan Amin told Portal.
Amin said the goal is to get major industry players to make decarbonization commitments that would help limit global warming.
“We hope to reach this agreement before COP28 and then coordinate on how best to implement this at COP.”
PART OF THE CONVERSATION
The meeting brought together CEOs from more than 50 companies from the oil and gas sector – the supply side – and the aluminum, steel and cement industries – the energy demand side.
The meeting, convened by COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, was also attended by US climate envoy John Kerry and covered topics such as commercializing hydrogen, expanding carbon capture technologies, eliminating methane and increasing renewable energy, it said a COP28 declaration.
UAE Conference President Jaber said the oil and gas industry must be part of the discussion on climate change. He called on the energy industry to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest and to push for an industry-wide commitment to achieve near-zero methane emissions by 2030.
The inclusion of oil and gas representatives is a far cry from the 2021 UN climate summit in Scotland, where energy companies complained about being left out of the event.
Ahead of COP28, countries remain divided between those calling for a deal to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels and those insisting that coal, oil and natural gas continue to play a role.
“If the oil and gas industry signs decarbonization agreements and methane avoidance, that will be a big contribution to the debate,” Amin said.
“It will be the first COP where we can measure the carbon we take off the table.”
Jaber, who is also head of the United Arab Emirates’ state-owned oil giant ADNOC, was a controversial choice to lead the climate summit because his country is an OPEC member and a major oil exporter.
Writing by Maha El Dahan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise
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