The consensus among
climate-change activists and many commentators is that the
decision to put the head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) in
charge of this year’s COP28 climate talks in the
United Arab Emirates is akin
to appointing a fox as head of security on a chicken farm.
اضافة اعلان
There is, however, an
alternative perspective on the appointment of Sultan Al-Jaber as
president-designate of what is being seen as the most crucial climate-change
summit since the
Paris treaty was agreed at COP21 in 2015.
Few people are more
qualified for the job than Jaber who, for the better part of two decades, has
had an unrivaled overview and a unique understanding of both sides of the
energy equation.
We all know that the
entire
planet must transition urgently from dependence on fossil fuels to
sustainable alternatives. What is needed to make that happen, however, are
solutions, and developing them at planet-saving scale is going to require three
things: money, broad energy expertise, and self-interested motivation.
No one understands better than the UAEs of the world that change is coming, and coming fast, and that the energy industries upon which the oil states were built must be reinvented
As the chief
executive of ADNOC, one of the world’s largest oil companies, and as a citizen
of a country facing its own existential global warming
crisis, Jaber has all three. Portraying Jaber as an out-and-out oilman whose
appointment to head up COP28 is “outrageously regressive” and “deeply
problematic,” is crassly naive.
To suggest, as
Climate Action International CEO Tasneem Essop did last week, that it is “imperative for the world
to be reassured that he will step down from his role as the CEO of (ADNOC),” is
to underestimate the intelligence of the world.
A key name in energy enterpriseNot everyone is
skeptical about Jaber’s appointment. US climate envoy John Kerry tweeted that
his “unique combination” of roles will “help
bring all of the necessary stakeholders to the table to move faster and at
scale.”
Jaber’s resume speaks
volumes. A chemical engineer by training, he began his career at ADNOC, but in
2006 was appointed launch CEO of Masdar, the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company.
Masdar, whose shareholders include ADNOC and Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi
investment company, has since become one of the world’s leading renewable energy firms,
with more than $30 billion invested in a broad range of green projects in more
than 40 countries.
Masdar is investing
in — and developing — a broad range of solutions, from solar energy and wind
farms to green hydrogen and grid-level energy storage solutions.
In other words, 17
years ago — almost a decade before the
Paris Agreement — the UAE was already
laying the groundwork for a post-oil future, and from the outset, Jaber has
been the man at the helm of that far-sighted enterprise.
Shifting away from oil-based economyNo one understands
better than the UAEs of the world that change is coming, and coming fast, and
that the energy industries upon which the oil states were built must be reinvented
if their economies are to survive, let alone continue to thrive.
“Before anyone in this region saw a future in renewables, the UAE saw them as the future.”
As the national,
state-owned oil company of the UAE, ADNOC’s ultimate focus is on the future
wellbeing of the country and its people, and that future is tied inextricably
to its successful transition to
sustainable energy. A 2015 study in the journal
Nature Climate Change found that if carbon emissions are not curbed, much of
the Gulf region — including the UAE — could become uninhabitable by the end of
the century.
As Jaber said at the
recent opening of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week, “Before anyone in this region
saw a future in renewables, the UAE saw them as the future.”
The UAE has worked
steadily to evolve from being a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based
one, creating a legislative, fiscal, and lifestyle environment designed to
attract global intellectual and technical expertise and investment, while
developing its own homegrown smart industries and talent, in fields from
aerospace and
transport to medicine and sustainable energy.
Evidence of the
success of this approach can be seen in the fact that, despite the
outdated perception of the UAE as being first and foremost a petrostate,
in 2020, oil exports accounted for only 30 percent
of the country’s GDP of $359 billion.
Tempering the transitionYes, the UAE is still
awash in fossil fuels — it holds 10 percent of the total world oil supply and has the
fifth largest natural gas reserves. Critics point to plans by ADNOC to increase oil production over the next
few years as if it is the smoking gun that proves conclusively that Jaber
really is a fox in the chicken coop.
But, of course, it
does no such thing.
Cutting off the flow of oil and gas tomorrow, as some activist groups would like, would end life on Earth as we know it.
We currently live in
a fossil-fueled world, and demand for oil is not going to evaporate overnight —
indeed, it will almost certainly increase in the near term as the world returns
to pre-pandemic levels of economic activity and economies in developing countries
continue to grow.
To make a conscious
decision not to supply that demand would be tantamount to economic sabotage on
a global scale. Cutting off the flow of oil and
gas tomorrow, as some activist
groups would like, would end life on Earth as we know it.
But equally important
is the reality that developing the technologies necessary to facilitate the
transition to sustainable energy on a global scale requires vast investment and
know-how — assets that organizations such as ADNOC have in spades.
It might be seen as
ironic by some, but the reality is that it is oil profits, reinvested with all
the intelligence and foresight demonstrated by ADNOC — led by people like Jaber
— that will make possible the transition to the post-oil era.
Last week, the BBC asked: “Why has an oil boss been chosen to
head climate summit?”
The simple answer:
He is the best fox for the job.
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