1.5C Goal Within Reach, Says Executive Whose Company Plans Biggest Oil & Gas Expansion On Earth

[hatrack]

An “unprecedented outcome” that would keep alive hopes of limiting global temperature rises to 1.5C is within reach, the president-designate of the UN Cop28 climate summit has said – and even Saudi Arabia is expected to come with positive commitments.

Significant progress has been made in recent weeks on key aspects of a deal at the crucial meeting that starts in Dubai this week, with countries agreeing a blueprint for a fund for the most vulnerable, and reaching an important milestone on climate finance.

Sultan Al Jaber, who will lead the talks on behalf of the Cop28 host country, the United Arab Emirates, told the Guardian in an exclusive interview on the eve of the talks that the positive momentum meant the world could agree a “robust roadmap” of cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 that would meet scientific advice.

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Al Jaber is also chief executive of the UAE national oil company, Adnoc. Campaigners have decried this as a conflict of interests, but Al Jaber has insisted it will help him to engage businesses and other oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, a close ally of UAE, and the world’s second biggest oil producer behind the US. Saudi Arabia has long been seen as an obstructive element in the annual conferences of the parties (Cops) under the UN framework convention on climate change.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/29/deal-to-keep-15c-hopes-alive-is-within-reach-says-cop28-president

The state oil company of the United Arab Emirates, whose CEO will preside over imminent UN climate negotiations, has the largest net-zero-busting expansion plans of any company in the world, according to new data.

Sultan Al Jaber is the chief executive of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and president of the Cop28 summit, which begins on 30 November. The researchers behind the new data said Adnoc’s huge planned expansion of oil and gas production was a clear conflict of interest and they said his position was “ridiculous”.

At Cop28, nations will attempt to agree to cut fossil fuel use and triple renewable energy. The summit comes at the end of a year in which global temperatures have soared, intense impacts of extreme weather have wrecked lives and there have been repeated warnings that the world already has plans to exploit far more fossil fuel reserves than can safely be burned.

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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/15/cop28-host-uae-oil-plans-data

[Voltaire2]

1. 1.5 is history.

we are headed toward worst case scenarios. They all know this.