Mark Carney, the United Nations’ particular envoy on local weather motion and finance, has stated that the achievements of COP28 will depend upon the host nation’s means to confront the fossil gas business.
”All international locations must be judged on what their contribution is,” Carney advised POLITICO’s Energy Play podcast, forward of the summit which is about to start within the oil-rich United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Thursday.
”And that goes for a rustic [the UAE] that could be a main oil and gasoline producer, additionally a number one renewable producer,” he added.
The UAE, residence to among the largest oil reserves on the planet, has attracted criticism for appointing Sultan Ahmed al-Jaber as COP president, regardless of his function as CEO of its nationwide oil firm.
Local weather activist Greta Thunberg has, for instance, stated the appointment of al-Jaber — who can also be chairman of the board of administrators of the UAE’s nationwide renewable vitality firm — was ”fully ridiculous.”
Al-Jaber’s ties to the oil business made headlines earlier this week as leaked paperwork — launched after the recording of this episode of Energy Play — confirmed the UAE was planning to leverage its place because the talks’ host to talk about oil and gasoline offers with a dozen international locations.
On Wednesday, al-Jaber advised reporters that the experiences had been ”false, not true, incorrect” and ”an try to undermine the work of the COP28 presidency.”
Requested about al-Jaber’s appointment, Carney stated, ”the COP president is the COP president, and it is our job to make it work.”
However, he added, this yr’s achievements of the world’s high local weather summit can even be assessed based mostly on ”what a part of the management of this COP president has been to take the vitality business, the oil and gasoline business head on and problem that business.”
”Let’s have a look at who stands up within the UAE at COP amongst the oil and gasoline firms and international locations and we’ll begin to decide who’s performing and who isn’t,” Carney stated.
Carney, who’s a former governor of the Financial institution of England, additionally criticized the current adjustments made by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to some key inexperienced insurance policies, which critics say jeopardize the U.Ok.’s purpose of reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
”In the event you begin zigging and zagging on local weather coverage, calling your dedication into some query, you set your self up for a more durable adjustment down the street,” Carney stated. ”There’s the primary indicators of that within the U.Ok., which is unlucky.”
Karl Mathiesen contributed reporting.