UAE names oil chief to head COP28 talks

UAE names oil chief to head COP28 talks

DUBAI: The head of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company was named Thursday as president of this year’s COP28 climate talks. Sultan Al-Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), will be the first CEO to take the role at the UN summit, said a statement carried by the official WAM news agency.

“I sincerely believe that climate action today is an immense economic opportunity for investment in sustainable growth,” he was quoted as saying, promising a “pragmatic” approach. Jaber, the UAE’s minister of industry, is also the Gulf state’s special envoy for climate change and has taken part in more than 10 COP meetings. He is CEO of Masdar, the UAE’s renewable energy company, and has “played a key role in shaping the country’s clean energy path”, the statement said.

COP27, held in Egypt in November, concluded with the adoption of a hotly contested text on aid to poor countries affected by climate change, but failed to set new ambitions for lowering greenhouse gas emissions. The UAE, one of the world’s biggest crude producers, will host the next edition in Dubai in November and December. It had the largest contingent of oil and gas lobbyists at