Logo of the Climate Summit, COP28, at the United Arab Emirates, December 2023. W.
The Petroleum Kingdom is the United Arab Emirates. The chief negotiator was the president of the UAE’s petroleum company, Sultan al-Jaber. This shroud businessman probably oiled his way to the UN officials with petroleum money gifts. And without a second thought he assumed the responsibility of being president of the UN Summit. One wonders if Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary General, was so innocent about this brutally obvious corrupt connection with UAE and al-Jaber in particular.
convinced the UN to have its 2023 climate meeting at Dubai, not because it took climate change seriously, but as an avenue to strike deals for more petroleum excavations and earn more petroleum money. BBC revealed this dark scheme, saying the UAE “planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals.”
The documents – obtained by independent journalists at the Centre for Climate Reporting working alongside the BBC – were prepared by the UAE’s COP28 team for meetings with at least 27 foreign governments ahead of the COP28 summit, which starts on 30 November.
They included proposed “talking points”, such as one for China which says Adnoc, the UAE’s state oil company, is “willing to jointly evaluate international LNG [liquefied natural gas] opportunities” in Mozambique, Canada and Australia.
The documents suggest telling a Colombian minister that Adnoc “stands ready” to support Colombia to develop its fossil fuel resources.
There are talking points for 13 other countries, including Germany and Egypt, which suggest telling them Adnoc wants to work with their governments to develop fossil fuel projects.
The briefings show the UAE also prepared talking points on commercial opportunities for its state renewable energy company, Masdar, ahead of meetings with 20 countries, including the UK, United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, China, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Kenya.
the host nation had used its official position to leverage new oil and gas deals around the world were a timely reminder that there are entire nations that essentially operate as oil companies, with precisely the same attention to morality as Exxon or Shell
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