QUITO, Ecuador / LA PAZ, Bolivia, February 27 (IPS) – The CEO of the twelfth largest oil producer – Sultan Al Jaber of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) – has been appoint as president of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP28The largest conference on climate change will take place in November 2023 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In short, the leadership of a Climate Conference that aims to devise ways to create a fossil-free future lies in the hands of representatives of one of the Top 15 corporations responsible for the most carbon emissions globally. Like any other oil company, ADNOC’s reason for existence is to profit from the very product that has skyrocketed global greenhouse gas emissions and caused a global climate emergency.
In fact, ADNOC Drilling of ADNOC Groups reported a 33% increase in net profit by 2022 with a forecast of record net profit in 2023 driven by further oil and gas expansion plans. And now at least 12 employees of ADNOC has been assigned the role of organization for COP28. That means this year global climate negotiations will be run by the fossil fuel industry.
Strong criticism have arisen from all over the world and especially from climate activists who have long fought for a fossil fuel-free climate COP. In response to this appointment, more than 450 climate and human rights organizations wrote a letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC condemning the appointment of Al Jaber as President of COP28.
The thin argument presented for the appointment of Al Jaber is his engage in renewable energy as president of Masdar, a “clean energy innovator” that invests in renewable energy. But that alone cannot compare with evidence of the negative and powerful role the fossil fuel industry plays in climate negotiations.
The fossil fuel industry has fully agreed with climate policy from the inside out. The most irritating illustration of this co-option and the company’s grip on climate negotiations is the current fact that someone like Al Jaber will preside over a crucial climate negotiation session. at a time when complete and equitable elimination of fossil fuels is critical and immediate action is needed to protect the planet.
And this does not happen the first time!
More than 630 Fossil fuel industry lobbyists participated in COP27 last year in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt and 18 out of 20 sponsors COP27 either directly cooperates with or is associated with the fossil fuel industry.
This ongoing 30-year experiment aims to enable the biggest polluters, their financiers and polluting governments to undermine a meaningful global response to climate change. has yielded bad and unacceptable results.
Some of last year’s reports include this report of the United Nations Environment Program shows that the world will miss the target set by world leaders in the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to below 1.5?.
So what is the solution?
It is time for international climate policy to finally be protected from polluting interests, and this is why many are proposing a concrete drawing from other UN precedents to eliminate systematically this unwarranted interference.
The United Nations Secretary-General recently equated the way the fossil fuel industry works as “incompatible with human survival,” also agreed that “those responsible should be held accountable.”
concrete Accountability Framework should be implemented by the UNFCCC drawing on other UN precedents to systematically eliminate this undue interference.
Parties to the UNFCCC must change the course of climate negotiations and give clear and immediate indications of profound structural changes that could lead to equitable transitions. Governments around the world should actively protect climate action from being written down, funded, and undermined by polluting interests.
Instead, it’s time (gone) to take real, proven and people-centred solutions and keep polluting corporations at bay. in charge of for their decades of lies and deceit. These are not new ideas. These are not even radical ideas. They are needed.
Indigenous peoples, farmers, women and frontline communities face and suffer the severe consequences of the impacts of climate change, along with social groups around the world that truly care. limiting greenhouse gas emissions, requires decision-makers to make the necessary changes to ensure that the right measures are adopted by the world and governments at COP28 to prevent the collapse of planet.
If these necessary measures are not rectified and taken immediately, it will be world leaders and decision makers who will be primarily responsible for the demise of our planet. It is clear to us that King Al Jaber has no moral or ethical character to lead and carry out COP28 for the sake of the people.
Pablo Fajardo Mendoza is with the Union of People Affected by Chevron-Texaco (UDAPT); And Gadir Lavadenz is the Global Coordinator, Global Campaign for Climate Justice
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© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOrigin: Inter Press Service
