Al Gore slams COP28 climate summit host UAE, says its emissions soared

By Agencies

Climate advocate and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Sunday slammed the UAE – host of the COP28 climate summit – saying its position as overseer of international negotiations on global warming this year was an abuse of public trust.

The comments, made to Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the conference in Dubai, reflected skepticism among some delegates that COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber, head of the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC, can be an honest broker of a climate deal.

“They are abusing the public’s trust by naming the CEO of one of the largest and least responsible oil companies in the world as head of the COP,” Gore said.

At a presentation at the COP’s main plenary hall before the interview, Gore unveiled data showing that the UAE’s greenhouse gas emissions rose by 7.5% in 2022 from the previous year, compared to a 1.5% percent rise in the entire world. That data came from a coalition he co-founded called Climate TRACE, which uses artificial intelligence and satellite data to track carbon emissions of specific companies, Gore said.

Gore, who ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. presidency in 2000 as the Democratic Party’s nominee, also railed against the presence of oil and gas companies at the annual climate summit and their promotion of technologies like carbon capture as a way to cleanse the emissions of fossil fuels.

Asked about the first-ever appearance of Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods at a COP conference, Gore said the oil giant’s engagement does not brush away its history of resistance to climate policies.

Source: Reuters