The Guardian recalls that it already revealed in April that the United Arab Emirates has the third largest oil and gas expansion plan in the world. So, according to the British journalists, the leaked document, which highlights ‘increasing production capacity versus climate ambition’ as an issue, was presumably created after that date. The document, however, seems to concentrate on the recommendation to reduce emissions, rather than on the even more serious problem of stopping combustion.
But it is not only on reducing emissions from fossil fuels that the document, despite all the caution we have mentioned, places emphasis.
Another, to say the least, delicate issue listed in the document is that the president of the November-December Cop28, Sultan Al Jaber, is also the chief executive of the United Arab Emirates’ national oil company, Adnoc: a dual role that has often been heavily criticised. And that is not all: the document also lists the fact that Adnoc has been unable to disclose its emissions or publish a sustainability report since 2016. ‘Adnoc is currently conducting the necessary studies’, the document nonetheless states, in an attitude that in Italy might be described as ‘a blow to the hoop and one to the barrel’, that is, trying to please everyone.
In defence of Al Jaber, the document states: ‘Dr Sultan’s well-rounded career [in the energy, climate and diplomacy sectors] gives him the experience needed to engage, disunite (in the original disrupt. What can that mean?) and unite constructively the very sectors necessary to achieve meaningful action’.
The only mention of fossil fuels in the long document, according to the Guardian, is in a section entitled ‘The UAE as a hydrocarbon economy (fossil fuel lobbying)’.
The response to give to any questions on the matter is that ‘the UAE is helping to build tomorrow’s energy system by reducing the carbon intensity of oil and gas’.
‘The carbon intensity of oil or gas’ means the CO2 emitted per unit in producing the fuel. It therefore does not include the much larger emissions released when the fuel is burned, as experts point out.
‘Climate ambition’ is listed as an issue, and the document notes that the United Arab Emirates has recently raised the ‘ambition’ of its commitments. However, the commitment would still allow the UAE’s carbon emissions to rise until 2030; for this reason the independent consortium Climate Action Tracker rates the UAE’s plans as ‘insufficient’.
The UAE’s per capita emissions, among the highest in the world, are also listed as a problem. ‘We acknowledge that we have considerable room for improvement, which is why our leadership has set us on the path to net zero by 2050’, the document states.
Greenwashing exposed?
Doubt therefore creeps in. Will the upcoming Cop28 be a colossal opportunity for some fine greenwashing by the UAE?
Pascoe Sabido, of Corporate Europe Observatory and co-coordinator of the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition of over 450 organisations, told the Guardian: ‘These pages of tediously crafted talking points tear away the green facade of this fossil fuel presidency. Anyone reading this should sound the alarm’.
‘The UN climate talks have become a trade fair for the oil and gas industry, not the flagship of climate action. An entire industry has successfully co-opted the process and is leading us in a death spiral towards climate catastrophe. How far are we prepared to go to make sure that does not happen?’
Not only environmental issues
The document revealed by the Guardian also lists responses to a long series of sensitive issues unrelated to climate and energy: money laundering, war crimes in Yemen, political prisoners, surveillance and espionage, the LGBTQIA+ community, freedom of expression, women’s rights and human trafficking. It should be remembered that homosexuality is illegal in the United Arab Emirates.
Nicholas McGeehan, of the human rights group FairSquare, said: ‘It is an extraordinarily detailed document, but the problem for the UAE on the human rights front is that it cannot actually produce any convincing answer to the very large and highly credible body of evidence against it.
The key point of this document is that the UAE cannot be taken at its word. Human rights activists have known this for a long time, and it is crucial that climate activists recognise the UAE’s double face’.
Finally, it should be noted that the Cop28 office, the National Media Office and Adnoc did not respond to the Guardian journalists’ requests for comment.
