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 direction of COP28,” and primarily based 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 Business 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 resolution to call Jaber as chairman of the upcoming COP28 discussions has just lately attracted criticism because of the potential battle of curiosity seen in an oil boss chairing the local weather summit. Nonetheless, if Jaber’s opening tackle is something to go by, the ADNOC CEO and Masdar chairman will have the ability to put on many hats, but in addition haven’t any illusions concerning the urgency of the transition to wash power.
Picture: Hamad Al Kaabi / UAE Presidential Courtroom
“We have now a full and clear understanding of what’s at stake,” mentioned Jaber, including that local weather motion is central to the UAE’s growth technique. “For us, sustainable growth is about not settling for the now. It is all the time concerning the subsequent … As a result of the following by no means stops.”
Jaber went on to precise the emirate’s ambition for COP28 to be a “COP of motion. A COP the place the worldwide north and international south actually pay attention to one another. A COP the place we transfer from objectives to creating them … And a COP the place we ship a brand new deal on local weather finance.”
Whereas ADNOC is without doubt one of the world’s largest oil firms, 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 primarily based financial system to a inexperienced power financial system.
“The street to web zero represents the most important market change with the most important financial promise because the 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 minimize emissions in half over the following seven years? The my reply is sure.”
The choice to call an oil boss as the pinnacle 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 job. In any case, with a hand within the fossil gasoline and renewable power pot, Jaber might show to be a useful middleman between the waning days of oil and a extra sustainable future.
The writer attended ADSW as a visitor of Masdar.
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