Row after UN’s climate chief says phasing out oil ‘will take us back to caves’
A UN climate chief has been criticised by scientists for claiming phasing out oil and gas would ‘take us back to the caves’.
Cop28 President Dr Sultan al- Jaber, who is also chief executive of the United Arab Emirates national oil company Adnoc, made the comment before the current climate summit began.
He has already had to deny allegations that he has used his position as Cop28 president to lobby for oil and gas contracts. In the latest conagreed
‘Pledges and no real action’
troversy, in taped comments from a meeting earlier this month leaked yesterday, he was asked by Mary Robinson, the former Irish President and a former UN special envoy for climate change, to commit to ‘phasing out’ fossil fuel.
Dr Al-Jaber, whose appointment as Cop28 president was described by Amnesty International as like putting a cigarette company in charge of an anti- smoking campaign, responded by saying that ‘there is ‘no science that a phaseout of fossil fuels is needed to restrict global heating to 1.5c’.
This is the temperature in 2015 that would avoid the worst effects of global warming. Dr Al-Jaber also said without fossil fuels countries could not develop sustainably ‘unless you want to take the world back into caves’, according to a recording obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting, shared with The Guardian.
His comments put him at odds with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who told Cop28 delegates on Friday: ‘The science is clear: The 1.5C limit is only possible if we ultimately stop burning all fossil fuels. Not reduce, not abate. Phase out, with a clear timeframe.’
A Cop28 spokesman said the leak was ‘clearly part of a continued effort to undermine the Cop presidency’s tangible achievements’.
Meanwhile, 50 of the world’s biggest oil companies have admitted they can do more to stop global warming from gas ‘flaring’ and venting during oil extraction which contributes to 15 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions from energy – 5.1billion tonnes of greenhouse gas.
Companies including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total and Aramco have signed a charter committing them to clean up their acts.
Oil and gas operations account for nearly 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from energy according to the IEA. Burning oil and gas – in transport, industry and power production accounts for another 40 per cent.
Climate campaigners were sceptical of the pledges.
Catherine Abreu, founder of the non-profit Destination Zero, said: ‘We’ve seen a long history of oil companies making climate pledges that don’t result in real action.’