This week’s Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW) was unlike any other, serving as a launchpad for the UAE’s hosting of the Cop 28 conference later this year in Dubai. COP President-Designate Sultan al-Jaber made his first speeches since his appointment the previous week during ADSW, where he said Cop 28 must “be a Cop of action that raises ambition and moves from goals to implementation across mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage.”
Mr Jaber has been CEO of Abu Dhabi state oil and gas firm Adnoc since 2016 (MEES, 19 February 2016), a duality which has been criticized by a number of environmental campaign groups. But since the acceleration of the energy transition, Adnoc has been seeking to capitalize on the low carbon footprint of its operations in comparison to its peers and has been investing to further lower this. And if the transition is to be successful, decarbonizing energy firms such as Adnoc wherever possible will be essential. Shutting them out of the process can easily backfire. (CONTINUED - 1015 WORDS)
