The United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as the host of the biggest and most important annual climate conference as a platform to lobby foreign government officials for oil and gas deals, according to a cache of internal documents obtained by a not-for-profit investigative journalism organization.
The leaked records show that Sultan al-Jaber, who controversially serves as both COP28 president-designate and chief executive of state oil giant ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.), planned to discuss fossil fuel deals with 15 countries during the forthcoming climate conference. Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar.
The documents purportedly show briefing notes prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team for meetings with almost 30 foreign governments ahead of the summit, which starts Thursday and is scheduled to run through to Dec. 12.
COP28 is the United Nations’ upcoming round of global climate talks. The two-week-long summit will be held in Dubai, with scores of world leaders and government ministers from nearly 200 countries expected to attend — alongside an estimated 70,000 delegates.
