UAE planned to use COP28 summit for oil deals, documents show

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The United Arab Emirates planned to use meetings about the COP28 climate summit it is hosting later this week to pitch oil and gas deals to foreign governments, according to leaked briefing documents obtained by the non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting alongside the BBC.

Sultan al-Jaber, president-designate of this year’s UN climate summit, has called for a “phaseout” of fossil fuels globally. But his position as head of COP28 while also leading the UAE state oil company Adnoc has attracted criticism from politicians in the US and Europe because of the perceived conflict of interest.

Documents posted online on Monday appear to show plans for Jaber to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 countries including China, Brazil, Germany and Egypt. The documents have not been verified by the Financial Times. A spokesperson for COP said the documents were “inaccurate”, “unverified” and had not been used by COP28 in meetings.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which oversees the summit, did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Its website states that the role of the COP president, who hosts the climate change conference every year, includes “raising ambition to tackle climate change internationally”.

Under the UNFCCC’s code of conduct, elected and appointed officers should not use their role to seek private gain or advantage, or to represent the interests of other groups. Draft rules of procedure that have not yet been adopted by the COP state that “the President shall participate in the session in that capacity and shall not simultaneously exercise the rights of a representative of a Party”.

Amnesty International’s climate adviser Ann Harrison called for Jaber’s resignation as head of COP28. “Documents suggesting he was briefed to advance business interests in COP meetings only fuel our concerns that COP28 has been comprehensively captured by the fossil fuel lobby to serve its vested interests that put the whole of humanity at risk . . . Sultan al-Jaber claims his inside knowledge of the fossil fuel industry qualifies him to lead a crucial climate summit but it looks ever more like a fox is guarding the hen house,” she said.

Alice Harrison, fossil fuel campaign lead at the campaign group Global Witness, said international climate talks had been “hijacked by the oil and gas industry”.

“Their lobbyists have been flooding COP for decades, using it as a forum to sign new deals that make them richer and everyone else poorer,” said Harrison.

The US has previously argued that Jaber could play an important role in driving change in the oil industry.

US President Joe Biden is not planning to go to the summit, US officials said on Sunday, but his top climate advisers, including former secretary of state John Kerry and former White House chief of staff John Podesta, are expected to attend.

Syrian Prime Minister Hussein Arnous will attend COP28 as head of the country’s delegation, pro-government newspaper Al-Watan reported on Monday. Arnous’ name also appears on a list of speakers for the summit previously published by the UN.

Earlier this year the UAE invited Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend as part of an “inclusive COP process”, and against the backdrop of increasing normalisation of ties between the Syrian government and other Middle Eastern states. It would have been Assad’s first global summit since 2011 featuring western governments who opposed him in Syria’s bloody civil war.

COP28 is likely to host a fierce debate over emerging economies’ continued reliance on polluting fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas.

Almost 200 countries committed at COP26 in 2021 in Glasgow to “phase down” — rather than “phase out” — coal power, but use of the fossil fuel has barely declined, especially as energy demand expands in countries including China, India and Indonesia.

Biden’s likely absence from COP28 had been expected as he grapples with war in the Middle East and prepares for a re-election campaign in 2024.

But the apparent decision to skip the gathering of world leaders is still striking given that Biden has placed the fight against climate change high on his domestic and international agendas and attended the last two climate summits in the UK and Egypt.

The New York Times first reported that Biden had chosen not to attend this year. Biden is travelling to Atlanta, Georgia, this week for a memorial service for Rosalynn Carter, the former first lady who died this month, and to Pueblo, Colorado, to speak about renewable energy investments.