U.S. climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates\u2019 decision to appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming U.N. climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, the former U.S. secretary of state acknowledged that the Emirates and other countries relying on fossil fuels to fund their state coffers face finding \u201csome balance\u201d ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he dismissed the idea that Sultan al-Jaber\u2019s appointment should be automatically disqualified due to him leading the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. Activists, however, equated it to asking \u201carms dealers to lead peace talks\u201d<\/strong>when authorities announced his nomination Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think that Dr. Sultan al-Jaber is a terrific choice because he is the head of the company. That company knows it needs to transition,\u201d Kerry said after attending an energy conference in the Emirati capital. \u201cHe knows \u2014 and the leadership of the UAE is committed to transitioning.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, Abu Dhabi plans to increase its production of crude oil from 4 million barrels a day up to 5 million even while the UAE promises to be carbon neutral by 2050 \u2014 a target that remains difficult to assess and one that the Emirates still hasn\u2019t fully explained how it will reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kerry pointed to a speech al-Jaber gave Saturday in Abu Dhabi, in which he called for the upcoming COP \u2014 or Conference of Parties \u2014 to move \u201cfrom goals to getting it done across mitigation, adaptation, finance and loss and damage.\u201d Al-Jaber also warned that the world \u201cmust be honest with ourselves about how much progress we have actually achieved, and how much further and faster we truly need to go.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe made it absolutely clear we\u2019re not moving fast enough. We have to reduce emissions. We have to begin to accelerate this transition significantly,\u201dKerry said. \u201cSo I have great confidence that the right issues are going to be on the table, that they\u2019re going to respond to them and lead countries to recognize their responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Each year, the country hosting the U.N. negotiations nominates a person to chair the talks. Hosts typically pick a veteran diplomat as the talks can be incredibly difficult to steer between competing nations and their interests. The nominee\u2019s position as \u201cCOP president\u201d is confirmed by delegates at the start of the talks, usually without objections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Al-Jaber is a trusted confidant of UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. He also led a once-ambitious project to erect a $22 billion \u201ccarbon-neutral\u201d city on Abu Dhabi\u2019s outskirts \u2014 an effort later pared back after the global financial crisis that struck the Emirates hard beginning in 2008. Today, he also serves as the chairman of Masdar, a clean energy company that grew out of the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Skepticism remains among activists over al-Jaber, however. A call by countries, including India and the United States, for a phase down of oil and natural gas never reached a public discussion during COP27 in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in November. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Activists worry that COP being held in a Mideast nation reliant on fossil fuel sales for a second year in a row could see something similar happen in the Emirates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked about that fear, Kerry said: \u201cI don\u2019t believe UAE was involved in changing that.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere\u2019s going to be a level of scrutiny \u2014 and and I think that\u2019s going to be very constructive,\u201d the former U.S. senator and 2004 presidential contender said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to help people, you know, stay on the line here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think this is a time, a new time of accountability,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the Emirates and the U.S. maintain close military relations,<\/strong> regardless of the federation making policy decisions disliked by Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dubai\u2019s Jebel Ali Port is the most-used port of call for the U.S. Navy outside of America. Some 3,500 American troops are deployed in the country, including at Abu Dhabi\u2019s Al Dhafra Air Base and a Navy outpost in Fujairah. The UAE has some $29 billion in pending defense sales with the Americans, including purchasing its most-advanced air defense system known by the acronym THAAD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For Europeans in particular, Russia\u2019s war on Ukraine has led to a reckoning on the continent\u2019s reliance of Moscow\u2019s natural gas to heat their homes in the winter. Though aided by an unusually warm winter, Europeans are trying to source gas elsewhere while also looking for renewables to fill whatever gaps they can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo country is advantaged by having a petro-dictator be able to control their future and their prices and their economy with reckless behavior,\u201dKerry said, referring to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo the degree there\u2019s something that\u2019s coming out of it that will change things for the better, that is Europe\u2019s deep commitment to big reductions in emissions and to a whole shift in the nature of their energy supply,\u201d Kerry said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" U.S. climate envoy John Kerry backs the United Arab Emirates\u2019 decision to appoint the CEO of a state-run oil company to preside over the upcoming U.N. climate negotiations in Dubai, citing his work on renewable energy projects. In an interview Sunday with The Associated Press, the former U.S. secretary of state acknowledged that the Emirates and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":29218,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_post_source_name":"","_post_source_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1363,8775,11746,5569,5522,11583,9328,7489,9331,8938,8413,9371,8440,5499,10668,8041,6695,5196,4066,6732,5494,6621,8057,12354,10627,7162,6569,6665,9643,3577,5491,10598,12773,5440,11493,8577,3874,9974,9323,10216,5572,5340,12187,12085,10349,8000,5441,11973,5396,9126,11082,3805,11377,10390,71,6356,3457,5217,6082,8547,4297,10041,3306,9178,347,5180,9262,6348,694,5251,2354,3954,8964,10415,36],"class_list":["post-29217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","tag-abu-dhabi","tag-air-defense","tag-appointment","tag-arab","tag-arms","tag-capital","tag-carbon","tag-chairman","tag-city","tag-clean-energy","tag-cop27","tag-cop29","tag-crisis","tag-crude-oil","tag-dictator","tag-diplomat","tag-dubai","tag-economy","tag-el","tag-emirates","tag-energy","tag-europe","tag-fear","tag-finance","tag-financial-crisis","tag-fossil-fuel","tag-fuel","tag-fuels","tag-fund","tag-future","tag-gas","tag-homes","tag-increase","tag-india","tag-interview","tag-john-kelly","tag-lead","tag-leadership","tag-masdar","tag-mideast","tag-military","tag-moscow","tag-n","tag-nations","tag-navy","tag-negotiations","tag-oil","tag-one","tag-peace","tag-peace-talks","tag-port","tag-president","tag-presidential","tag-prices","tag-putin","tag-renewable-energy","tag-russia","tag-russian","tag-senator","tag-sheikh","tag-sheikh-mohammed-bin-zayed-al-nahyan","tag-speech","tag-steer","tag-troops","tag-uae","tag-ukraine","tag-united-states","tag-us","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-war","tag-washington","tag-will","tag-winter","tag-work","tag-world"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsemgh.com\/api-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}