Sultan Al Jaber, the United Arab Emirates official selected to lead the United Nations’ climate change talks, said “the phase-out of fossil fuels is inevitable”, marking his strongest statement yet on the future of the coal, oil and gas in a warming world.
However, Al Jaber, who also heads the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., did not suggest a time frame for phasing out fossil fuels. Instead, he used a speech in Bonn, Germany, on Thursday to reiterate his call at the COP28 summit in November to boost other efforts, specifically tripling renewable energy, doubling energy efficiency and doubling “clean hydrogen” for 2030.
The speed of the fossil fuel phase-out “depends on how quickly we can scale up zero-carbon alternatives while ensuring energy security, accessibility and affordability,” Al Jaber said, according to prepared remarks.
Al Jaber has faced calls from EU and US lawmakers for his removal as COP28 president-designate and to limit the influence of fossil fuel companies at the climate summit from November in Dubai. One of the major issues pending at the COP27 negotiations in Egypt last year was a push for countries to commit to phasing out all fossil fuels, not just unbroken coal, a commitment already enshrined in the pact Glasgow 2021.
Al Jaber has previously emphasized the need to focus on phasing out “fossil fuel emissions”.
The European Union is leading a push to set global targets to boost renewables and energy efficiency as part of an effort to reduce emissions. Al Jaber met the bloc’s leaders in Brussels this week, where the two sides pledged to work together on the transition “toward uninterrupted fossil fuel-free energy systems.”
Al Jaber pledged on Thursday “to be focused on concrete and ambitious solutions that allow us to close the gaps by 2030”, noting that there are only seven years left to achieve the 43% emissions cuts needed to maintain temperature targets global within reach.
“We need to move from incremental steps to transformational progress that delivers to everyone, everywhere,” he told the crowd, made up of the heads of the countries’ negotiating delegations.
–With the help of Akshat Rathi.
