Head of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Named President of COP28 Climate Change Summit

The head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), one of the world’s largest oil companies, has been named the president of COP28, the United Nations climate change summit, which will be held at the end of this year in Dubai, the emirate in the United Arab Emirates with the highest population.  Sultan al-Jaber is the UAE’s minister of industry and technology and its climate envoy, as well as founding CEO of Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy firm Masdar, in which ADNOC has a 24% stake. The UAE is a major OPEC exporter of oil, and reportedly sent dozens of oil and gas lobbyists to the COP27, held just a couple months ago in another Arab state, Egypt. Some civil society activists have called for Al Jaber to give up his position as head of ADNOC in order to serve as COP28 president. COP28 will offer the first formal assessment of progress on cutting carbon emissions since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015; the UAE was the first country in the region to ratify the Paris Agreement. The UAE has committed to reach net zero emissions by 2050. See also today’s story, Dubai Is Making Its Green Energy Dreams Come True.