Sultan Al Jaber is the Right Leader for United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) (By NJ Ayuk)

Sultan Al Jaber is the Right Leader for United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) (By NJ Ayuk)

The backlash in recent days about the selection of Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), to serve as president of the next United Nations Climate Conference (COP28) has been quite… dramatic.

The decision to have him lead the conference has been described as “a fox watching the henhouse,” asking “arms dealers to lead peace talks,” and “putting the head of a tobacco company in charge of negotiating an anti-smoking treaty.”

Tasneem Essop, the executive director of Climate Action Network International, went further, saying,” He cannot preside over a process that is tasked to address the climate crisis with such a conflict of interest, heading an industry that is responsible for the crisis itself. If he does not step down as CEO, it will be tantamount to a full scale capture of the UN climate talks by a petrostate national oil company and its associated fossil fuel lobbyists.”

And Tzeporah Berman, chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, told ABC News that the selection of Al Jaber to oversee COP28 is a “devastating blow to the climate negotiations at a critical moment in history.”

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