The United Arab Emirates is treating the Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, which incorporates the World Future Power Summit, as a trial run earlier than the nation hosts the COP28 local weather talks in November.
The theme of the 2023 Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) is “United on Local weather Motion In the direction of COP28,” and based mostly on the worldwide attendance and speaking factors of the convention, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is treating the occasion as a trial run in entrance of the hosts in Dubai. the United Nations Local weather Change Convention (COP28) from Nov. 30, 2023.
UAE Minister of Trade and Superior Know-how Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, who can be the CEO of Abu Dhabi Nationwide Oil Firm (ADNOC Group) and the chairman of the state renewable power agency Abu Dhabi Future Power Firm (Masdar) , gave the occasion’s opening tackle. .
The UAE’s choice to call Jaber as chairman of the upcoming COP28 discussions has just lately attracted criticism as a result of potential battle of curiosity seen in an oil boss chairing the local weather summit. Nevertheless, if Jaber’s opening tackle is something to go by, the ADNOC CEO and Masdar chairman will be capable of put on many hats, but in addition haven’t any illusions in regards to the urgency of the transition to wash power.
Picture: Hamad Al Kaabi / UAE Presidential Court docket
“We’ve got a full and clear understanding of what’s at stake,” mentioned Jaber, including that local weather motion is central to the UAE’s improvement technique. “For us, sustainable improvement is about not settling for the now. It is all the time in regards to the subsequent … As a result of the subsequent by no means stops.”
Jaber went on to specific the emirate’s ambition for COP28 to be a “COP of motion. A COP the place the worldwide north and world south actually hear to one another. A COP the place we transfer from targets to creating them … And a COP the place we ship a brand new deal on local weather finance.”
Whereas ADNOC is likely one of the world’s largest oil corporations, it additionally has a 24% stake in Masdar, and thru Masdar the UAE Jaber is main one of many area’s most pragmatic approaches to transitioning from a fossil-fuel based mostly financial system to a inexperienced power financial system.
“The highway to internet zero represents the largest market change with the largest financial promise for the reason that first industrial revolution,” Jaber continued. “As we put together to host COP28 in November, I ask myself: can the world come collectively to fulfill the urgency of this second? Can the world lower emissions in half within the subsequent seven years? My reply as a result of sure.”
The choice to call an oil boss as the top of the COP28 summit typically goes to courtroom controversy. However among the many ADSW attendees there was no scarcity of people that noticed Jaber as uniquely able to such a task. In spite of everything, with a hand within the fossil gas and renewable power pot, Jaber may show to be a purposeful middleman between the waning days of oil and a extra sustainable future.
The creator attended ADSW as a visitor of Masdar.
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